"... In my reports, I?m trying to offer readers more empirical facts from the ground and analyze them in the light of possible trajectories ahead. I?m increasingly convinced that the process of political opening in Burma is heading towards a particular brand of hybrid regime. In short, it?s high time for us to call a spade a spade: We need to get over the hopeful talk of "democratization" in Burma and recognize that the country is, in fact, undergoing a liberalization process that doesn?t necessarily lead toward liberal democracy. As I see it, there are three basic groups that have three fundamentally different views: In the view of the authoritarians (the Chinese and old regime hardliners), the predatory state under the old dictator served their interests well, so they long for yesterday. The liberalizers (including both Burma?s current business cronies and Burma?s friends in the West) welcome the space afforded by liberalization, so they live for today. Then there are the ordinary people of the country, who desperately yearn for more find that their path forward is still blocked. So the people of Burma feel that tomorrow does not belong to them."