Burma New Man, Old Setup

Those who made the appointment intended it to be a gesture of mollification, an invitation to calm. But to much of Burma, the announcement last week that Attorney General Maung Maung, one of only two civilians in the previous Cabinet, had become the country's President was but another move in a cynical game of new man, same government.

In the wake of nationwide strife that forced the fall of General Sein Lwin on Aug. 12, after only 17 days in power, the appointment outraged the students and Buddhist monks who sparked the uprising against an autocratic regime. The government's failure to move toward a multiparty democracy led to renewed calls for a national strike this week, leaving Burma poised for another plunge into the violence that, by unofficial estimates, had already claimed 3,000 lives.

Through the week, while officials met to determine who would succeed Sein Lwin, the pressure to open up the political system persisted. In Mandalay, in the north, an estimated 100,000 people -- out of a population of only 600,000 -- rallied to demand democracy. In the capital 15,000 demonstrators appeared in front of Rangoon General Hospital, where two doctors and three nurses were slain on Aug. 10 by security forces. Though armored vehicles patrolled Rangoon streets, troops kept a cautious distance from protesters.

Given the depth of popular frustration, it was thought unlikely that the bloodshed was over -- or that Maung Maung, 63, was secure in his new job. The British-trained lawyer has long-standing ties to General Ne Win, Burma's strongman from 1962 until his resignation on July 23 and the man blamed for widespread repression and an economy that lies in ruins. Maung Maung served with Ne Win in the fight to free their country of colonial domination during World War II and, after Ne Win's 1962 military coup, became Chief Justice of Burma's high court, the first of many government posts. In 1969 he wrote an adoring official biography of the then President.

The fact that both Sein Lwin and Maung Maung were so closely linked to Ne Win suggests that the longtime strongman is calling the shots and is not in retirement. The belief that Maung Maung's tenure is simply an extension of Ne Win's is feeding the opposition fury. "The people are not going to stop until the entire government is thrown out," said an Australian businessman after visiting Rangoon. "The crowds feel they can't lose."