“Burmas Folly” “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” Military Dominance To seize and control ethnic groups’ ancestral lands rich in natural resources for example the Burmese military has burned an estimated 3,500 villages in Eastern Burma alone forcing 470,000 non-Burmese ethnics to flee the country since 1996. According to a 2009 report by the Thailand Burma Border Consortium a nongovernmental organization based in the land so villagers can’t return effectively destroying their culture because rice farming is central to their way of life. The report explains. The military has forced more than 8000,000 others to work in so-called “relocation” camps. Which offer atrocious living conditions and also serve to destabilize ethnic populations. as the consortium has extensively documented.