Although there have been numerous instances of countries transitioning to democracy in the recent past, the momentous changes that Myanmar is undergo- ing have generated a more than usual curiosity, attention and interest for a vari- ety of reasons, not least because the leader of the crusade against the military rule is Aung San Suu Kyi. The focus is unlikely to wane, for while certain develop- ments are profound – holding of free and fair elections, freedom to the press and removal of fetters on the rapidly growing civil society along with unprecedented reforms to the economy – there are others that have remained the same, most prominently the military’s pivotal role over politics and unabated unrest by sev- eral ethnic minority communities. Myanmar has indeed come a long way since the tumultuous events in the early 1960s and more recently in the late 1980s.
After prolonged deliberations spread over several years, the military rulers of Myanmar promulgated a new constitution in April 2008. It was subjected to a public referendum the following month, which expectedly was approved with a thumping majority. The constitution provided a seven-step process to usher in democracy. Not many took it seriously because it was hardly democratic as it had bestowed special privileges on the military, including 25 per cent of parliament seats reserved for the armed forces or their nominees, besides many other provisions which ensured that without military’s active support neither the constitution could be amended nor any significant decision could be taken, which meant the military elite would forsake its direct control but effectively would control the politics of the country indirectly. Thus, when the road map was announced and later the general election was actually held in 2010, it was generally assumed that the constitutional road map the military junta declared was to deflect the growing chorus of criticism within Southeast Asia and the rest of the world and the intense pressure the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had been exerting ever since Myanmar joined the association in 1997.