Global Action for Burma: International Month of

Action against the “Sham 2010 Election”

November 17, 2009

Global Action for Burma (GAB) is launching a global action
month against the Burmese military regime’s sham 2010
election starting on November 17, 2009.
GAB fully supports Aung San Suu Kyi and her party the
National League for Democracy (NLD)’s “Shwe-Gone-Daing”
declaration. The Burmese military regime has so far totally
ignored the NLD’s gesture. There are more arrests of political
activists and restrictions of freedom. Furthermore, the regime
is forcing ethnic cease-fire groups to agree to a “Border Guard”
proposal in order to cement the military’s hold on power. The
2010 election, a step in the regime’s 7 steps road map ignores
ethnic rights and violates the basic freedom of Burmese people.
We would like to highlight some important reasons why we
reject the 2010 election in its current form. The 1990 election
result has yet to be honoured. Aung San Suu Kyi and thousands
of political prisoners are still incarcerated in various prisons.
The 2008 Constitution is designed to ignore ethnic rights and
perpetuate military rule in Burma and the 2010 election is
planned to legitimise military rule in Burma.
We would like to echo our position on what U Win Tin, Aung
San Suu Kyi’s right-hand man said, “We will not be cowed or
coerced into participating in a fatally flawed political process
that robs the Burmese people of the freedom for which we
struggle. We stand ready to engage, but we are more than
willing to continue our struggle for the democratic values that
so many have given their lives and their freedom to achieve.”
Our national hero General Aung San said that “Independence
cannot be asked but fight for it.” If the junta does not react
positively to the demands of our legitimate leaders, we are
ready to move forward with our, “National Liberation
Movement”, by means of people power through boycotts of
totalitarian rule such as civil disobedience, noncooperation with
authorities. We will fight until we have a government which
represent the true will of Burmese people.
We call upon the international community to ask the Burmese
military regime to respond positively to NLD’s “Shwe Gone
Daing” declaration. The international community must not
relax; rather keep enforcing the current sanctions until the
regime takes concrete measures such as releasing all political
prisoners unconditionally and allowing freedom of expression
and assembly at minimum. The international community must
also stand ready to deny the legitimacy of election result if
regime fails to do so.
We ask you humbly to stand with Burmese people.