Than Shwe, the dictator of Burma, caused it to be announced today that a constitutional referendum “was overwhelmingly approved”– when in fact a huge portion of the Burmese are dead or lying injured and homeless from the cyclone and tsunami which hit the Irrawaddy delta rice growing region almost 13 days ago…and were unable to drink clean water, let alone vote.
Than Shwe’s referendum casts in concrete in perpetuity, more of the brutality and egotistical offal that Burma has suffered in the nearly four decades of military rule under and from Than Shwe.
Than Shwe claims his referendum document was voted in by 92.4 percent of the 22 million eligible voters last Saturday.
His henchman, named Aung Toe, head of the Referendum Holding Committee, touted such on state radio, saying the voter turnout was more than 99 percent.
Please forgive me, but this all reminds me of the grotesqueries of Elena Ceausescu, the headscarf and overcoat and thick heeled shoe wearing wife of the dictator of Romania, Nikolai Ceausescu. While her dictator husband appointed himself, literally, Geniul din Carpai, ‘Genius of the Carpathians’, she appointed herself Commissioner Head of Sciences. She also appointed herself the equivalent of ‘Highest Director of National Arts.’ Elena Ceausescu held daily three-hour long television shows of herself expounding to the vastly intelligent Romanian people, her stunted and ignorant ‘knowledge’ of the arts and ‘scientific matters’. No one with even a baby pea-brain believed a word she said. But her abject dimness of heart and hubris made her believe others were somehow stupid and would never see through her.
But people did see through her, rejected her utterly, overthrew her and her husband. For his and her crimes against the people, which were evil and Mengeles-like, such as controlling and punishing reproduction or the lack of it, and for withholding medicines from those dying of AIDS, and causing a preventable epidemic as a result… and for doing as Than Shwe does presently… grabbing and stashing all the nation’s valuables and bullion to himself alone… for all these, the Romanians fought and won a coup, and imposed the death sentence on Elena Ceausescu and her husband. And they were no more.
And people do see through Than Shwe. Voices from all over the world, human rights groups, the UN, and others have utterly condemned Burma’s Than Shwe for gerry-rigging the vote, and outrageously lying that it was ‘a move toward democracy.’
The world communities of conscience condemn Than Shwe most of all, for abjectly leaving the cyclone victims to die and rot and starve, while he tends to his portly, well fed ego. It is believed well over 100,000 have perished in Burma from the cyclone and many thousands more from neglect by the government which has stonewalled, delayed, disorganized and also prevented well equiped and expert rescue teams from outside Burma to come to the aid of the poor suffering Burmese.
If you’d like to read a take on the effects of and containment of evil, regarding the social justice situation in Burma from a spiritual and political perspective, I’ve written an article entitled, “Facing Evil: Qui tacet consentit – Who Keeps Silent, Consents” at The National Catholic Reporter.
Meanwhile, the AP reports:
Following the balloting, local journalists said they saw cases of intimidation of voters at various polling stations around the country.
The fear of the military, which has ruled since 1962, was so great that
few among those who voted were expected to vote “no,” despite a campaign by pro-democracy activists to oppose the constitution.
This new constitutional referendum means that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the real leader of the country’s pro-democracy movement, will never be allowed to take her rightful office as leader of Burma. Than Shwe refuses to honor the people’s true vote from the 1990 general election, which was won by her, not by Than Shwe the interloper. Than Shwe like a demented cat, has put Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, then released her, then put her under arrest again, then released her. Then arrested her again, where she remains today.
The AP continues:
The editor of a respected Myanmar newsmagazine who had reporters stationed around the country said the information he received showed the vote was not completely free and fair. “The essence of secrecy is totally lost in some of the polling booths,” said the editor, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
He said his reporters saw officials telling voters, “Don’t forget to put the tick, the right mark,” as they got ready to cast their ballots. Voting officials also would sometimes pull aside the curtains protecting the privacy of the voting booths, in addition to asking voters to affix their fingerprints on the ballot papers. Other journalists witnessed voters clutching three or four national registration cards, which they exchanged for an equal number of ballots, a violation of voting rules.
This means that the millions of Burmese people harmed in the cyclone and tsunami had their country stolen away from them as they lay sick and dying and dead. Quite a victory Than Shwe. Maybe a victory, yes…
but only in Hell.