The head of Myanmar’s military junta made a rare call yesterday for all citizens to back a controversial “road map” to democracy.
Writing in an article on the front page of the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper, Senior General Than Shwe said it was every citizen’s national duty to support the political process.
“The state’s seven-step road map is being implemented to build a peaceful, modern and developed new democratic nation with flourishing discipline,” he wrote on the eve of the country’s national day.
“The entire population are duty-bound to actively participate with united spirit and national fervor in the drive to see the seven-step road map,” the paper quoted him as saying.
Under the government’s “road map” to democracy, Myanmar has adopted a new Constitution after a widely criticized referendum held days after a cyclone ravaged large swathes of the country in early May and left 138,000 people dead or missing.
Authorities said the referendum, carried out without independent monitoring, had received support from 92.48 percent of voters.
The road map paves the way for elections in 2010 in a country that has been ruled by the military since 1962.
But the US, the EU and the UN have dismissed the lengthy proceedings as a sham because of the absence of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
The NLD won a landslide victory in 1990 elections but the junta did not allow them to take office.
Than Shwe’s announcement comes a day after Myanmar’s most famous comedian Zarganar was sentenced to 45 years in prison, and in a month when more than 150 activists have been given long jail terms by the military regime, opposition sources said.
The NLD said on Friday the jailings decimated a new generation of political leaders.
About 150 members of the NLD party held a ceremony yesterday to mark the country’s national day at its headquarters in Yangon amid tight security.
Plain clothes policemen and local militia surrounded the building, while the road to Aung San Suu Kyi’s house had been closed with barbed wire since the morning, with increased numbers of police around her house, witnesses said.
Rights groups have accused the junta of trying to curb dissent ahead of the 2010 elections.
New York-based group Human Rights Watch yesterday joined UN experts and the US in condemning Myanmar for the sentences.
Brad Adams, the group’s Asia director, using the former name of the country, said the jailing of the comedian was “a cruel joke on the Burmese people.”
“But it’s a bigger joke on those abroad who still think ignoring repression in Burma will bring positive change,” he said.
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