In the past five years, the junta has effectively consolidated its grip on power. They now see themselves as a corporate identity that, even as generals come and go, will keep policies relatively the same. The NLD meanwhile is in dire straits. On June 7, Aye Tha Aung, the representative of the NLD's four ethnic-minority branches, was sentenced to 21 years in jail. Some analysts believe the systematic and brutal emasculation of the NLD has split the party over how best to proceed with resistance.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Suu Kyi's bet is that by bringing the junta's hardline tactics back into the spotlight, the NLD may regain hope at home and spur fresh international criticism. Unfortunately for her, rumbles from the West seldom, if ever, effect real change in Burma. And rumbles at home, history shows, only beget more repression. Review Publishing Company Limited, Hong Kong. All rights reserved.