Bush's US military killed 1,000,000 Iraqi civilians
IN BRIEF: (WQ) Burma's opposition NLD says it is confident of electoral victory in the first openly contested national election in 25 years. Burma is a 95% Theravada Buddhist country in Southeast Asia next to Thailand. It's name was changed to "Myanmar" (which the occupying Colonial British pronounced Burma) by the illegitimate military junta that has ruled with an iron fist for nearly 25 years, which many rightly suspect are still in power from behind the scenes from their new capital Naypidaw).
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| The NSA's favorite recipe book: 1984 |
Burma and its military rulers served as the basis of George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty Four. A dictatorship led by Big Brother or "Asian Hitler" (as Ellen Page calls him) General Than Shwe pulled off a military coup when Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of beloved Burmese national hero Aung San, won democratic elections.
She was placed under house arrest and never allowed to take office. She was imprisoned from time to time and threatened with being barred if she left the country, although she married and had children with a British citizen. The story of this national catastrophe which had reverberations around the world -- but turned around by Pres. Obama and Hillary Clinton for the sake of USA hegemony over neighboring China's influence in the region -- was dramatized in "Beyond Rangoon" with Patricia Arquette:
(JBF Entertainment/Neil Hollander Film) WARNING: Gore and carnage during Saffron Revolution/people's uprising for Aung San Suu Kyi and justice. The right-wing military dictatorship -- which has ruled Burma ever since a coup that wrested power from beloved, democratically-elected Suu Kyi -- reacted with police state violence.
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| Ellen Page's photo of Dictator Than Shwe |
(JBF Entertainment/Neil Hollander Film) WARNING: Gore and carnage during Saffron Revolution/people's uprising for Aung San Suu Kyi and justice. The right-wing military dictatorship -- which has ruled Burma ever since a coup that wrested power from beloved, democratically-elected Suu Kyi -- reacted with police state violence.
Burma's elections
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| Democrats love fake democracies over right-wing dictatorships. U.S. Pres. Barry Obama kisses Burmese opposition-leader Aung San Suu Kyi after making a speech at her residence in Rangoon, Nov. 19, 2012 (blogs.ft.com). |
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| Suu Kyi serving in Burmese parliament |
- "Burma VJ" - a video journalist (VJ) during the Saffron Revolution documents junta's abuse of Buddhist monks who rose up against illegitimate military leaders.
Official results have been released for only 54 seats, with 48 won by the NLD.
The military-backed Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP) [formerly known as SLORC, the "State Law and Order Restoration Committee"] has been in power since 2011 [with SLORC holding de facto power much longer.]
The NLD says it has won 44 out of Rangoon's 45 seats in the lower house, and 70% of seats nationally, but this has not been confirmed. [SLORC changed Rangoon to "Yangon."]
More than 6,000 candidates from more than 90 parties were vying for 498 seats in both houses of parliament. [Burma uses a British style parliamentary system when not ruled by iron-fisted military dictators, but of course this is only the velvet glove concealing the iron fist that still characterizes Myanmar's real movers and shakers.]
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| Aung San Suu Kyi is Burma's Nelson Mandela, the US's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Here she is seen at Nat'l League for Democracy HQ in Rangoon in Nov. 2010 (Soe Than Win/Getty Images). |
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| Will Ferrell, Ellen Page, Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh, and Mr. Jennifer Aniston (who's a man) |
NLD spokesman Win Htein said it had "accumulated proof that there are some deeds by the authorities which are against the election regulations."
The acting chairman of the USDP [in an amazing confession on the BBC's U.S. broadcast] has told BBC Burmese that he has lost his own seat in the constituency of Hinthada to the NLD -- seen as a key indicator of election results.
"We have to find out the reason why we lost," U Htay Oo said. "However, we do accept the results without any reservations. We still don't know the final results for sure."
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| Daw Aung San Suu Kyi making news in Burma's Parliament after earlier elections (AFP). |
Earlier, Ms. Suu Kyi addressed a crowd at the NLD's headquarters in Rangoon, urging them to be patient.
A quarter of the parliamentary seats are reserved for the army, and for the NLD to have the winning majority it will need at least two-thirds of the contested seats.
