Self-praise stirs activists as 'sav

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South China Morning Post
Friday  September 19  1997

Self-praise stirs activists as 'saviours' mark takeover 
Burning issue: Burmese students torch a banner during yesterday's protests. 
Agence France-Presse photo 
REUTER in Bangkok 
Burma's military government yesterday lauded its own efforts to restore order 
to the country in the nine years since it took power through a violent coup 
d'etat.
"Today we, the people of this nation, celebrate the anniversary of the State 
Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) by glancing back over our shoulders 
at what it has been able to achieve in the years since 18 September 1988," 
said an editorial in all state-run newspapers.
The editorial said "anarchy" had threatened the country with disintegration 
before the SLORC took over, adding that moves for party pluralism would usher 
in "a new era of democracy in our own mould, democracy based on discipline".
"We have today a better nation," it said.
The SLORC was set up in 1988 after troops crushed seven months of 
unprecedented pro-democracy protests across the country. Several thousand 
people were killed or imprisoned during the protests. Thousands of others fled 
to border areas or neighbouring countries.
All official newspapers, printed in colour to hail the SLORC's anniversary, 
carried special articles on government achievements over the past nine years.
Among other things, the articles mentioned Burma's recent entry as a full 
member into the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its 
successes in negotiating cease-fire agreements with rebels from most of the 
country's ethnic groups.
But exiled Burmese activists said the Government had not made many strides 
forward, due to its dismal human rights record and failure to recognise 1990 
elections which were won by the National League for Democracy - the party 
founded by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
"The SLORC has been propagandising this very seizure of power as if it were an 
act of salvation of the country," said the National Coalition Government of 
the Union of Burma, the self-proclaimed government-in-exile.