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| I was wondering where Tony Orlando had gone. Now I know, he's advising the Myanmar junta. |
The Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) could win eventual elections and cloak the junta in civilian guise, the Thailand-based Network for Democracy and Development (NDD) said. "The regime is little interested at this time in genuine democratisation, and has already developed an elaborate plan using the USDA to hold onto power," former Thai ambassador Surapong Jayanama said in a preface to an NDD report. "The UN Security Council is needed to end the political deadlock in the country. The people of Burma should not have to wait any longer," he said in a report entitled "The White Shirts: How the USDA will become the new face of Burma's Dictatorship".
It counts high-ranking members of the State Peace and Development Council, as the junta is known formally, as patrons, secretaries and members of its Central Executive Committee, the exiles report said. "With a long history of oppression, the potential for the USDA to become a political party and run in future elections is troubling," it said. "A transition to a new, civilian government would be in name only."