Thursday, 25 February 2010 13:17 Thomas Maung Shwe
(Mizzima) - ASEAN’s Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan claimed today in an interview with the BBC program Hardtalk that Burma’s upcoming 2010 election would be a “new beginning” for the country plagued by four decades of military misrule and mismanagement.
The election is seen by many governments in ASEAN as a promising development. Many Burmese democracy activists however are wary of coming out in support of an election that will held at a yet to be determined date, using a yet to be announced election law and held under Burma’s new constitution which guarantees heavy military involvement in the day to day running of the country’s affairs.
At times during the interview Pitsuwan appeared somewhat ill prepared to respond to presenter Stephen Sackur’s aggressive questioning style that is a trademark of the popular BBC program.
In response to Sackur’s statement that “hailing elections for elections sake is an insult to the Burmese people” the former Thai Foreign minister replied that “no election is perfect, it has to begin and that’s what is beginning , they promised at the end of this year. . .we are working on trying to make sure that our expectations will be fulfilled, that this will be credible, its going to be transparent.”
When Sackur bluntly asked “its not going to be credible is it?” Pitsuwan conceded “certainly not on the same level of any other country that you are expecting, this is a different country they’ve had a different background”.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
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