“Just having an election is not going to change things much,” Alfred Oehlers, professor at the Asia- Pacific Center for Security Studies, said in a FORUM interview. “But the challenge of change lies not only in flawed electoral processes. After decades of neglect, the entire structure of governance in Burma is weak and handicapped by severe capacity deficits, a lack of transparency and accountability, widespread corruption, and a general malaise in processes, principles, and values.”
“The junta has no intentions on having ‘good governance’ as the civilized world knows it,” agreed Tim Heinemann, retired dean of academics at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. “The structure of governance is designed to exploit Burma’s human and natural resources for the profit of a small exclusive club of Burmese generals and billionaires.”