Myanmar's military government will resume long-suspended work to draft a new constitution, which will pave the way for an elected government, the country's new prime minister said yesterday.
But General Khin Nyunt gave no timetable for the process, and didn't say whether pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi or her party would be allowed to take part in the drafting or any future government.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won a national election more than a decade ago, but the junta has refused to yield power.
Speaking to government and military leaders at the Parliament building, Khin Nyunt said a body called the National Convention would restart its constitution-drafting work, which was suspended in March 1996.
The draft constitution would then be placed before a referendum and, if approved, would form the basis for a "free and fair" parliamentary election. A new government would follow.
"That is Myanmar's road map," Khin Nyunt said, describing a seven-point plan which he said would finally lead to "a modern, developed democratic country." But he hinted that democracy was not around the corner, blaming this on Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy and countries opposed to the junta.
"The NLD failed to work hand-in-hand with the government, thus democracy is far away," he said. "External pressure only places our country far from democracy. We still have friendly neighbors. If any country tries to bully us, there will be regional unrest."
Khin Nyunt blamed Suu Kyi, who has been under detention for the past three months, for scuttling the National Convention when her party withdrew from it in 1995, saying it was a tool of the ruling junta. The convention was suspended the following year.
"Due to the NLD's attempt to derail the National Convention under foreign pressure, the political developments and political process sputtered to a stop," he said.
Khin Nyunt was named prime minister days ago in a major Cabinet reshuffle that changed more than a dozen ministerial posts.
The general's reputation as a relative moderate in a hardline regime has sparked speculation about what his transfer means, and whether he has been promoted or demoted. He had been the ruling junta's third-ranking leader and replaced Than Shwe, who remains defense minister, commander of the armed forces and chief of the junta.
Khin Nyunt's one-and-a-half-hour speech, which focused largely on the regime's development work, was not carried by official media and no foreign diplomats were invited to hear it.
Rumors had spread that the speech would include mention of Suu Kyi's detention and possible release from military custody.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner was arrested on May 30 after a bloody clash between her followers and regime supporters in northern Myanmar.
Intensive international efforts, including tougher US economic sanctions, have failed to secure her release.
The National Convention, a 700-member body set up in 1993, worked intermittently at its task and had come up with some guidelines for the constitution.
The guidelines sought to ensure that the military, which has run the country since 1962, would continue to play a prominent role in politics. They would also have barred Suu Kyi from holding elected office since she was married to a foreigner at the time.
A new constitution would replace a 1974 one canceled when the current regime took power in 1988, the year a Suu Kyi-led pro-democracy uprising was brutally crushed by the military.
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