In response to new challenges over the past years, many world leaders are trying to find ways to support and improve political and economic climates. They know the key to the nation’s future is to find a way to support sustainable development for the years to come. They all believe one thing stays the same: –”the need to change”. Indeed, the situation is always changing in international and regional climates, and will always keep changing.

In the regional political climate in Southeast Asia, the Thai army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin who led a coup against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra appointed an interim government within two weeks and national elections would be held in a year. In Philippines, provoking rebellion was arrested to face the court of justice. This pre-emptive action saved the country from further decline by crushing the selfish motivated individuals who wished President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo out using extra-constitutional means. Former Prime Ministers Mahathi of Malaysia immediately resigned from all his party and government positions, ending 21 years in office. In the same way, former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew from Singapore stayed away from the country’s politics and handed over power to the next generation. The current leaders in those two countries were convinced of continuing changes and tran

“For things to change I must change first”, this is what all regional leaders should tell the next young generation. Mistakes are learning experiences to become better.

But, this philosophy does not work for a new generation of selfish motivated generals who are implementing and controlling the policy and strategies in Burma. They don’t wish to learn from the mistakes of late General Ne Win who drove his country into poverty and disrepute over a 26-year reign. No matter what, a new generation of generals are trying to promote themselves as Chairman of SPDC, Field Marshal of Burma’s army, who wish to be honoured with State Funeral Service, like Stalin and Saddam who painted himself as a benevolent ruler and hero to his lackeys while engaging in unspeakably vile atrocities in secret.

Over two decades, Burma’s rulers have been busy with dog-eat-dog policies. No substantial and significant result has been achieved. No time frame for political development has been made. The fact of the matter is the Burmese regime does not want to change its attitude towards its own citizens and their repressive policies. After the United Nations Undersecretary-General, Ibrahim Gambari’s visit, the Burmese generals charged and imprisoned the three most prominent student leaders of Burma, Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Htay Kye who have been working tirelessly to bring about democratic changes in the country by peaceful means, in the same way as Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention was extended by another year following Gambari’s previous visit to Burma.

Recently, the Burmese regime claimed that UN resolution against the junta would destroy peace and accused the Security Council of trying to interfere in its domestic affairs. It is a ridiculous statement made by selfish motivated generals. How can you maintain peace in a country under repressive policies? Nevertheless, the evidence is that the conflict in Burma has displaced over one million people. There are currently more than 1,100 political prisoners in notorious jails, and four million citizens have left their own country since 1988. Indeed, many thousands of people in the war zones of Burma are suffering growing humanitarian crisis that will increase threats to Burma’s neighbouring countries and the entire region. Even many human rights groups have expressed concern about arbitrary arrests by military intelligence agents, prolonged interrogation, and the torture and ill treatment of detaine

Despite more than 28 resolutions adopted by the U.N. General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights, calling for national reconciliation and democratization in Burma, as well as the actions undertaken by the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and his office over the past ten years, and the four envoys to Burma mandated by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, the SPDC’s unlawful methods of political and ethnic repression have intensified and consolidated. In reality, the United Nation resolution becomes music to the ears of the notorious generals in Burma who have few friends in the region. It also lent its support to the junta’s new roadmap to the military way of democracy.

The U.N and its Security Council must not fail the Burmese people again when they need protection the most. We, the Burmese people need both political and economic reform moving in the right direction, and we need it soon. For that reason, the U.N Security Council’s resolution should not be the same as the UN resolutions without a plan called decisive actions based on principles. The international and regional climates were quite different from when the regional leaders had confronted the Burmese regime more than a decade earlier. The Council must move towards more active formal measures and take punitive actions toward Burma’s rulers who need to be primarily responsible for national reconciliation and democratization process.

(Myat Soe is Research Director of Justice for Human Rights in Burma. He graduated from Indiana University, and earned his MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University)