Few people, in Burma or the outside world, had high expectations when last March the army handed power to a quasi-civilian government after decades of repressive military rule. The handover followed a tightly controlled, some say rigged, election under a new constitution that preserved vast military power, including the right automatically to appoint a quarter of the members of a new parliament. The designated president was hardly more promising. Thein Sein, a recently retired general, had made little impact in four years as prime minister during the junta led by army strongman Senior General Than Shwe.
今年3月份，緬甸軍方結束了長達幾十年的軍事高壓統治，把權力移交給準文職政府。當時，無論是緬甸國內還是國際社會，都沒有多少人對該國的未來抱有很高的期待。權力移交之前，緬甸根據新憲法舉行了一次受到嚴密控制的（也有人稱之為“受到操縱的”）選舉。新憲法為軍方保留了非常大的權力，包括自動在新議會中獲得四分之一席位的權利。新議會選出的總統吳登盛(Thein Sein)也很難讓人抱有希望。吳登盛是一位退休不久的將軍，曾在軍方鐵腕人物丹瑞大將(Senior General Than Shwe)領導下的軍政府中擔任了四年總理，在那段時間里，他鮮有建樹。