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Constitution forum `nearly completed its task': Myanmar

"It is the duty of all citizens to strive for the emergence of a modern and developed discipline-flourishing democratic nation."

Thein Sein, chairman of the National Convention's Convening Commission

Myanmar's National Convention, meant to lay the groundwork for the country's new constitution, has nearly completed its task, a top member of the country's ruling junta was quoted yesterday as saying.

General Thein Sein said at an organizational meeting for the convention that it has finished 75 percent of its work, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.

Speaking on Saturday at Naypyidaw, the new administrative capital 400km to the north of Yangon, Thein Sein said the convention has laid down 15 proposed chapters to be included in the new constitution, the state-run newspaper reported.

Thein Sein, who is chairman of the meeting's Convening Commission as well as a top junta leader, said the convention will meet again at the end of this year, though he did not specify a date. It last adjourned in January.

The convention is part of a seven-step "roadmap to democracy" proposed by the junta, which however has never announced a set schedule for a return to electoral democracy.

The next steps after the guidelines are completely drafted are supposed to be the "step by step implementation of the process necessary for the emergence of a genuine and disciplined democratic system," followed by the drafting of the actual document and a national referendum to adopt it.

Myanmar has been without a constitution since 1988, when the existing 1974 charter was suspended after the military violently suppressed mass pro-democracy protests.

"It is the duty of all citizens to strive for the emergence of a modern and developed discipline-flourishing democratic nation," Thein Sein was quoted saying. "To help achieve the goal, the National Convention is adopting basic principles and detailed basic principles to write an enduring constitution."

Critics consider the proceedings a sham because the delegates were hand-picked by the military, and detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party are not taking part.

The party won a landslide victory in a 1990 general election but the military refused to hand over power, claiming it had to first write a new constitution.
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