BURMA: Government by confusion & the un-rule of law: "The first elections held in Burma for two decades on 7 November 2010 ended as most people thought they would, with the military party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, taking a vast majority in the national parliament through rigged balloting. Almost a week later, after days of disgruntlement and debate about the outcome of the elections, the military regime released the leader of the National League for Democracy, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest. Although Aung San Suu Kyi?s release was expected, since November 13 was the deadline on the period of imprisonment imposed through a fraudulent criminal case against her in 2009, it perplexed many foreign observers, who asked questions about why the military would acquiesce to her release at a time that it may provoke and create unnecessary problems during the planned transition from full-frontal army dictatorship to authoritarian clique in civilian garb. What most of these persons have not yet understood about the nature of the state in Burma is that government by confusion is an operating principle. For them, as military strategists and planners who think in terms of threats and enemies, the most effective strategies and plans are those where both outside observers and as many people in the domestic population as possible are left uncertain about what has happened and why, what may or may not happen next, and what it all means. This principle of government by confusion underpins the un-rule of law in Burma to which the Asian Human Rights Commission has pointed, described and analyzed through careful study of hundreds of cases and attendant information over the last few years. Whereas the rule of law depends upon a minimum degree of certainty by which citizens can organize their lives, the un-rule of law depends upon uncertainty. Whereas rule of law depends upon consistency in how state institutions and their personnel operate, the un-rule of law depends upon arbitrariness. Whereas rule of law is intimately connected to the protection of human rights, the un-rule of law is associated with the denial of rights, and with the absence of norms upon which rights can even by nominally established. In this annual report, the AHRC points more explicitly to the links between this operating principle and the un-rule of law..."