Burma's Big Lie

SBS Dateline

Burma's first election in 20 years delivered a decisive win to the ruling military junta last November, immediately international leaders and Burmese dissidents declared the election a sham, with reports of voter intimidation and electoral fraud. Now, through underground contacts inside the deeply secretive country, Dateline's Evan Williams has interviewed Aung San Suu Kyi for her reaction to the election and has received footage filmed undercover showing how the military crafted the election outcome.
REPORTER: Evan Williams

For supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi, patience is a virtue. This was the scene outside her front gate before her long-awaited release from house arrest last November. When the moment game they couldn't restrain their joy. This is the woman many consider the rightful ruler of Burma, and the next day they were back to hear her speak.

AUNG SAN SUU KYI, OPPOSITION LEADER (Translation):  I have said many times that I rely on the people’s power, without the people’s power nothing can succeed. So this power will be used methodically – just wanting something is not enough, you must know how it get it, you must also dare to do it and be able to do it…

While the crowds were delighted, Aung San Suu Kyi's appearance came just six days after Burma's first elections in 20 years. This is how the vote was shown on Burma's state-run television. The result was a resounding win for the military-backed party the USDP, but in an exclusive interview for Dateline, Aung San Suu Kyi said the result was meaningless.

AUNG SAN SUU KYI :  The whole process of the elections were so patently unfree and unfair, that it makes a laughing stock of democratic practice.

In the secretive newly built capital Naypyidaw, the elected MPs are meant to be running the country. It's supposed to be a civilian Government. But most of these seats are occupied by serving army officers, and their allies and former military men who have simply changed out of their uniforms. They want the world to think that the elections were the first step towards democracy in Burma.

But secret filming tells a different story - In the parlay district of Rangoon, clandestine  cameramen from the Democratic Voice of Burma - an exiled media group found many voters too scared to be identified. This man said 'The USDP candidate won through coercion'.

MAN (Translation): If he does not win the most votes, the village council chairman, secretary and members threatened that something might happen. That has certainly happened in every village.

The Government controlled USDP had their activities broadcast regularly. This was the opening of a new office in Rangoon.  Then, according to residents, just before the election, Government officials started gathering votes from those who would not be able to make the ballot stations, it was called advanced voting. 

WOMAN (Translation):  Those who cast advance votes were not infirm or elderly or about to travel and some were not even registered voters.

Some voters were willing to speak out about the coercion on camera, but for their own safety none of these people will be identified by name. 

WOMAN VOTER (Translation):  They demonstrated to me how to tick and asked me to tick like that, when I asked if I could tick other parties, they said it was just a trial, I said if it was a trial I could tick other parties and they said no, just tick the USDP box.   So I did.

Hers was apparently not an isolated case. 

WOMAN VOTER 2 (Translation):  They said to tick the box with the lion logo, my husband was absent so my eldest daughter had to tick on his behalf. She wanted to tick something pretty, but they said “No, only tick the lion.”

Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National Human Rights Commission had met and decided to boycott the elections. Meanwhile, election watchers from outside the country condemned advanced voting as bias in favour of the USDP.

AUNG SAN SUU KYI:  With the advanced voting, it just seemed to be so incredible that there was so many advance votes and the way in which they poured in, in some cases only after the result had been declared. So there was something very - very undemocratic, I suppose, is the word one would have to use.

On Election Day, the ruling germs of the military junta made a public display of voting. Burma's Government said the polls were free and fair, but the Democratic Voice of Burma camera teams found many disappointed would-be voters. 

WOMAN VOTER 3 (Translation):  Because I could not get the numbered card, I couldn’t vote, I have been trying to get it since the election was announced, I am very unhappy with the situation. As it is election day, I want to vote for who I choose.

The denial of voting rights was widespread and systematic, as the camera teams found in the town of Dalla, near Rangoon - loud speakers urged voters to the polls but many of those who were able to vote found control and intimidation. 

WOMAN VOTER 4 (Translation): At polling station Number 5 a security guard was inside the actual voting area telling people which boxes to tick. USDP members were forcefully telling people who to vote for.

No independent observers were allowed to monitor polls stations. Officials made sure that voters voted in the right way.

  

MAN (Translation): Of the four parties standing in our village, the three parties other than the USDP had no representatives or observers. So the USDP could do whatever it wanted in the villages, they were always looking over your shoulder, so you just ticked the lion.

Cho Cho Kyaw Nyen is a member of a pro-democracy party, before the election she told Dateline that she was standing as a candidate to try to change the system from within. 

CHO CHO KYAW NYEN, PRO DEMOCRACY PARTY (Translation):  The people are like terrified frogs flattened under a log, we have to first try to alleviate their fear.

Cho Cho lost the vote and lodged a complaint about what she called unfair state control. She's been closely watched, but soon after the election she agreed to speak to one of our covert camera men.

CHO CHO KYAW NYEN (Translation):  I accept my defeat at the polls, but the affection that township had for me and the votes they gave me were unjustly disregarded.  

She says the local USDP candidate installed his close relatives as polling station staff, who then pressured people to vote for him.

CHO CHO KYAW NYEN (Translation):  All three were inside the polling booth, those who wanted to vote for me were frightened, they came to inform me and when I looked, it was true and I saw that the voters were intimidated. I reported this to the authorities.

Cho Cho gave us these documents to show the risks faced by any who officially complained. They threatened her with $1,000 fine and a year in prison if her claims are found to be false.

CHO CHO KYAW NYEN (Translation):   Honestly I don't want to be in prison at this age of over 60, however I am lodging a complaint as I felt my rights were abused.

AUNG SAN SUU KYI:  We thought that whatever rules and regulations that the authorities had brought out at least they should abide by those rules and regulations and if they did not do so that this is tantamount to a lack of rule in law that could even be interpreted as anarchy.

Some members of Cho Cho’s party did win seats, but according to the party leader U Thu Wai, their USDP rivals are still pursuing them.

U THU WAI, OPPOSITION LEADER (Translation):  They used all the means to win but some of their candidates lost so these failed candidates are trying to sue us in court to win the seat they have spent lots of money to sue us in court believing they will win government.  Everything remains unchanged, we are still under a unilateral government that's why this election couldn't be held fully democratically but we still it is a step towards democracy and we have participated in this election.

AUNG SAN SUU KYI:  We don't think it's necessarily a step forward towards democracy. I have said time and again a blatant dictatorship is better than a parody of democracy, if there's a parody of democracy - it makes people complacent or gives them an excuse to say "There's no longer any necessity to work for democracy in Burma."

As the new parliamentarians gathered, the Government controlled USDP had won 873 seats or 75% of the vote. A quarter of the parliamentary seats were already reserved for the military and a further 70 serving officers with USDP candidates. Other former generals filled many of the top parliamentary decisions.

These are Aung San Suu Kyi's supporters, apart from boycotting the election, they also launched a 'No Vote' campaign, the actual turn out is disputed, but the NLD claims its campaign was successful.

AUNG SAN SUU KYI:   We at the NLD have enough evidence to think that our campaign was a success, and that less than 50% of the voters went to the polls.

Huge crowds still greet every appearance by Aung San Suu Kyi, but her party faces big challenges. The NLD has been banned by the Government, and some question what the Nobel Peace Prize winner can achieve now the military completely dominates the parliament.

AUNG SAN SUU KYI:  For more than two decades NLD survived because of the support of the people. Even when we were supposed to have been officially a registered political party, we were deprived as our rights of a political party so the survival of the NLD. Its strength is not in any registration office, but in the will of the people.

Having consolidated control, the military's main goal now is to end the international sanctions against Burma. South-east Asia and a growing number of nations in Europe are inclined to agree. But Aung San Suu Kyi told Dateline the time is not right.

AUNG SAN SUU KYI:  I do not think it would help if the international community were to deceive itself into thinking that there has been genuine progress. With regard to sanctions the NLD brought out a paper to explain why we think that this is not the time for sanctions to be modified or removed, and there should be a review of the whole situation, and what we would really want the international community to do is to insist on an all-inclusive political process in Burma.

The military warned Aung San Suu Kyi to end her support for sanctions or she will meet a "tragic end", in Burma, that is no idle threat.

MARK DAVIS:  Evan Williams reporting there. If you'd like to see Evan's pre-election story from Burma or read about the difficulty of getting news out of the secretive country, go to the website.

Reporter/Camera

EVAN WILLIAMS

Producers

VICTORIA STROBL

AARON THOMAS

GEOFF PARISH

Editor

NICK O’BRIEN

Translation/Subtitling

HSO HOM SAO

Original Music composed by
VICKI HANSEN                                       

Produced with the Democratic Voice of Burma

24^th April 2011