Than Shwe Urges Workers to Vote ‘Yes’

The Irrawaddy News-AP

Burma's junta chief urged workers on Thursday to approve a draft constitution in the upcoming referendum while the main opposition party implored them to reject the document, which critics call a sham intended to cement military rule.

In his May Day message appearing in The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, Snr-Gen Than Shwe said workers should approve the proposed charter in the May 10 referendum because labor groups participated in drafting it.

The charter "was drawn in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the National Convention, which was participated in by delegates of workers," Than Shwe was quoted as saying in the state-run newspaper.

A military-managed national convention was held intermittently for 14 years to lay down guidelines for the country's new constitution. The junta's hand-picked delegates included those representing workers.

The new constitution is supposed to be followed in 2010 by a general election. Both votes are elements of a "roadmap to democracy" drawn up by the junta.

Meanwhile, the country's main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, urged workers and farmers to vote against the draft.

"The proposed constitution mentions very little about the rights of workers and farmers," the NLD statement said.

The NLD earlier said the draft charter was written unilaterally by those hand-picked by the military government and would not guarantee democratic and human rights.

Dissidents inside the country as well as exiled groups have urged voters to reject the constitution, saying it is merely a ploy to perpetuate more than four decades of military rule.

Opponents have staged scattered, mostly low-profile protests against the draft charter, but harassment of pro-democracy activists and restrictions on freedom of speech have made a mass movement difficult.

The government has launched an aggressive campaign in the state-controlled media with songs, cartoons, articles and slogans urging voters to approve the constitution.

The draft constitution guarantees 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military and allows the president to hand over all power to the military in a state of emergency.

It also bans anyone who has enjoyed the rights and privileges of a foreign county from holding public office—a rule that would keep Suu Kyi out of government because her late husband was British.

Suu Kyi, the leader of the NLD, is under house arrest and has been detained for 12 of the past 18 years.

Burma held its previous general election in 1990. Suu Kyi's party won, but the military refused to hand over power.

The international community increased pressure on the junta after it violently quashed peaceful mass protests last September. At least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained.