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Myanmar referendum amid cyclone destruction |
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Myanmar’s military junta which did not put off the referendum despite large scale loss of property and life due to last week’s cyclone in Irrawaddy delta, has said people overwhelmingly voted a pro-military Constitution. State Radio said after the vote on May 15that the draft constitution was approved by 92.4 per cent of the 22 million eligible voters. It put the turnout on May10 to be 99 per cent. Critics have dismissed the draft constitution as a sham document designed to entrench military rule. The junta did postpone the voting by two weeks in the hardest-hit parts of the country including the main city of Yangon and remote regions of the Irrawaddy delta, but critics said it should have been rescheduled entirely.
Despite the UN appeal for it to concentrate on helping the victims of the cyclone, the junta was adamant that the referendum continue despite growing problems resulting from the disaster. Apparently, the junta leaders put their people’s well-being second to their political schemes. The Generals are concerned about their political survival and everything must go according to plan.
The National League for Democracy [NLD] led by the detained Aung San Suu Kyi had urged the voters to vote no” in the referendum, while the ruling SPDC was engaged in a high-pitch campaign of its own for a “yes” vote.
The NLD’s dim view of the draft statute was outlined by the party’s spokesman U Nyuan Win in an interview on phone. He emphasized that the draft would only institutionalize a military-dominated system of governance through the guise of a popular vote. A junta-subservient panel reserved 25 per cent of the seats in future Parliaments to the military establishment and the armed forces would have the prerogative, under the draft, to appoint key ministers and impose martial law at will.
The referendum, Nyan Win points out, was never discussed by the military rulers with Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under prolonged house arrest to this day. NLD had hinted giving call to its supporters to vote in the referendum if it was put off until the time the country had rehabilitated the people uprooted by the cyclone.
In the event, as the junta held the referendum across Myanmar, except in the declared disaster areas including NLD’s bastion of Yangon on May10, the opposition estimated about 50 per cent voter turnout. Also in focus were the allegations of pressure tactics by the SPDC’s minions of unfair practices such as the absence of a system of agents on behalf of the “no-campaigners’ at the time of balloting as also counting.
Death toll rises as junta refuses entry of aid workers
The official death toll from Myanmar’s May 2-3 cyclone has jumped to nearly 78,000, State Television reported on May 16, marking an increase of about 35,000 over just a day earlier. The number of missing doubled to 55,917 after being reported as 27,838 for most of the past week. The report also updated the number of injured to nearly 20,000.
The Red Cross, however, said it believed the total cyclone death toll may be as high as 127,990. The UN has said more than 100,000 people may have died. The number of those missing has been estimated at 2,20,000 by the United Nations humanitarian agency, warning of environmental damage, violence and mass migration. It said, assessment of 55 townships in the Irrawaddy delta and other disaster areas found that upto 1,02,000 persons could have been killed in Cyclone Nargis.
The UN and Red Cross say 1.6 million to 2.5 million people are in urgent need of food, water and shelter. The UN has warned that a second wave of deaths will follow unless the military regime lets in more aid and allows foreign aid workers to deliver the aid. The UN says another cyclone is forming near Myanmar.
Wary of any foreign influence that could weaken 46 years of its iron rule in Myanmar, the junta has insisted on managing the operation itself and kept most international disaster experts and foreign aid workers away. But, aid groups say the Government cannot possibly handle the tragedy by itself with hundreds of tonnes of supplies and high-tech equipment piling up in warehouses, bottlenecked by logistics and other problems. The Military regime has, however, dug in its heels saying it would not bow to pressure to let in foreign aid workers. The Generals have repeatedly rebuffed calls to accept foreign relief workers need to quickly deliver food, water, shelter and medicine. The European Union’s top aid official in Myanmar has warned that the military government’s restrictions on foreign aid workers and equipment were increasing the risk of starvation and disease in the country. The military rulers have been accused of international aid to army warehouses instead of distributing to the needy. The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, discussed with India’s External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, the current situation in Myanmar on phone.
Despite the refusal to allow aid workers, international aid shipments continue to arrive, including five new air deliveries carrying American supplies. Western diplomats said their representatives at the airport were making sure that the cargo was unloaded efficiently and then trucked to staging areas. The fate of supplies after that, however, remained unknown because the junta has barred all foreigners, including diplomats and aid workers from accompanying any donated aid, tracking its distribution or following up its delivery. As anger boiled over in the international community about the delay, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that the UN would convene a summit somewhere in Asia to address the crisis. President Bush has extended sanctions on Myanmar.
Making out a strong case to let in foreign aid workers, political observers said the Myanmar administration is clearly not equal to the task of this magnitude. It remains unconcerned about the imminent threat of an epidemic outbreak in the affected region. More than ever before, the insidious consequence of the lack of democratic accountability of the leadership are beginning to show up. They say, it is shocking that an administration can be so callous about responding to a humanitarian crisis of the magnitude Myanmar is facing. It was hell-bent on going through with a referendum meant to prevent Nobel laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from fighting the elections or holding public office and to provide for a statutory role for the armed forces in the proposed Parliament. Despite the huge loss of lives, the referendum was held. Driven by the sole objective of legitimizing itself and clinging to power, it has remained unmoved by the fact that people are dying without access to food and medicines.
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