Myanmar's surprise announcement that it will hold a vote on a new constitution in May and a general election in 2010 drew little enthusiasm yesterday among the military regime's critics and the public at large.
The announcements late on Saturday of the constitutional referendum and the election were the first moves by the government to set dates for stages of its so-called road map to democracy.
"The time has now come to change from military rule to democratic civilian rule," according to the announcement for the 2010 polls, broadcast on state TV and radio.
Critics say the long-delayed road map is designed to perpetuate military rule, not promote democracy.
The last election in Myanmar took place in 1990, but the military refused to hand over power to the winning party -- the National League for Democracy (NLD) of detained Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in prison or under house arrest for more than 12 of the past 18 years.
Trevor Wilson, a Myanmar expert at the Australian National University in Canberra, said: "This is certainly a step forward, but it is long overdue and is in itself insufficient to mollify either Burmese opponents of the military regime or the international community."
The international community increased pressure on the junta to hasten political reform after it violently quashed peaceful mass protests last September, killing at least 31 people, according to a UN estimate.
Last week, the US broadened financial sanctions against junta members and their families and friends, blaming the military's poor human rights record and failure to hand power to a democratically elected government.
A statement from the British Foreign Office in London said "a genuine and inclusive process of national reconciliation" was necessary for a transition to democracy and called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
Aung San Suu Kyi and others have not been consulted on the constitution or the election process.
The democracy icon's party reacted cautiously, noting the lack of detail on how the referendum would be carried out.
"The announcement is vague, incomplete and strange," NLD party spokesman Nyan Win said on Saturday night.
"Even before knowing the results of the referendum, the government has already announced that elections will be held in 2010," he said, implying the government was certain the draft constitution would be approved.
At tea shops in Yangon, where morning news and gossip are traditionally exchanged, many visitors seemed to be unimpressed with the developments.
"I am not interested in their referendum because the results are known already," 48-year old noodle salad seller Mar Mar Aye said.
Several people said they were unsure what a referendum was, noting the language describing it was similar to that used for the stage-managed mass rallies the government holds to show the public supports its policies. Myanmar's last constitutional referendum took place in 1974.
Scheduling the referendum for May makes it difficult for the junta's critics to mount a campaign against it, particularly because most leading pro-democracy activists are in jail, many detained in connection with last year's anti-government demonstrations.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962 and has not had a constitution since 1988, when the army brutally put down earlier pro-democracy demonstrations and the current junta took power.
The country has been in a political deadlock since the military refused to recognize the 1990 election results, saying the country first needed a new constitution. It harassed and arrested members of the pro-democracy movement.
Guidelines for the new constitution were adopted by a military-managed convention last year and a government-appointed commission is drafting the document.
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