Tin Mya optimistic about 2010 elections

by Moe Thu
Monday, 19 October 2009 12:22

Rangoon (Mizzima) – A veteran politician Thakhin Tin Mya is of the opinion that elections in Burma in 2010 would help the country embark on a new political path.

Speaking at a function organized for his book launch in Rangoon on October 18, the controversial politician Thakhin Tin Mya, a former communist, reiterated that local players and entities were more crucial than outside forces to help resolve Burma’s political impasse.

“This will be a guided democracy initially, which is better than nothing,” he said, urging local politicians to seek a unified approach to development.

However, Thakhin Tin Mya (85) avoided talking about the role of many local politicians, now in detention, including democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

He said external forces and pressures cannot usher in political change to the impoverished Southeast Asian nation. He was critical of economic sanctions imposed by some western nations.

“Sanctions cannot bring changes,” the politician said.

Meanwhile, Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy, has offered the junta to help lift sanctions against the military regime.

Thakhin Tin Mya also said NLD was expected to contest the 2010 elections, and warned that the party would go out of the realms of politics if it refused to do so.

“It had said it would not contest the elections but changed its attitude,” he said.

He said the Obama administration’s new Burma policy would have an impact on political change in Burma but it would not be a determining factor.

The book-launching ceremony was attended by about 50 people including journalists and writers.

Tin Mya was an adviser to former dictator Gen. Ne Win's Burma Socialist Programme Party but ousted from BSPP in 1977. Then he became a member of the Central Executive Committee of the National League for Democracy when it was founded. He was arrested a year later by Military Intelligence and sentenced to 20 years in prison but released in 1993. He criticized party leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his detention.

He announced his retirement from politics after he was released from prison but he resurfaced with his support to the military junta's 2010 election in the recent past.