Great editorial from Ajaan Christina, who has worked with and taught at ISDSI for years. This year she’s moved back to the States, and is still active in teaching, research and writing.
Here are a couple of key parts of the editorial. Be sure to click through for the full article.
(CNN) — On November 7, Burma will hold elections for the first time in 20 years. Not because the military regime wants to transfer power. Instead, the military leadership hopes that by creating a democratic facade, it can improve its image and still run the country.
Since the military’s 2007 crackdown on monks’ demonstrations, the regime has faced simmering anger inside the country and growing calls for at least some degree of political reform from abroad….
The regime has concluded that as long as it holds elections, domestic and international pressure will subside. Yet the electoral process is so far from being free, fair and inclusive that many countries have already denounced it as a sham.
