Which was why the leadership of the Solidarity underground called for the council to be boycotted. Evidently there was room for them outside prisons after all. The Consultative Council was a trick, but it gave symbolic recognition to the opposition's existence. Any Consultative Council is a grotesque creature, created by the dictatorship of the generals, and although the NLD has withdrawn its representatives, a wide range of people are taking part in it. Which is why it may become a useful instrument for dialogue on democratisation.
Dictatorship hates reform and loves 'development and improvement'.
But, despite everything, reform keeps knocking at the gate. Because, at some quite arbitrary moment, people rebel. Police squadrons disperse the crowd. The people have their martyrs. Police batons and arrests act as agents of integration and new leaders are its hallmark.