On the eve of the country’s first elections in 20 years, Aung San Suu Kyi finds herself a political phantom of sorts.
Her National League for Democracy (NLD) has boycotted the elections, lest the results be interpreted as an oppressed citizenry’s approval of continued military-dominated rule.
The 65-year-old remains cloistered in her crumbling lakeside home in Rangoon.
The ruling junta, in power since the 1962 coup, has stacked the deck so thoroughly in its favour that the victory of army-backed parties was assured.
Nevertheless, in a tropical country where for decades political change has felt no more likely than a freak snowstorm, the elections herald a chance – even if it’s a tiny chance – for a slight shift in the political climate. In the walk-up to the vote, at least the mere mention of the word “politics” hasn’t landed anybody in jail. That is a measure of change for a country that has been preserved in amber for 20 years.
Source: BBC
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
