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In the absence of a strong class of businessmen or a highly organized church -- both of which existed in the Philippines when Ferdinand Marcos was deposed -- the party and the 163,000-troop Burmese army it controls have a virtual monopoly on political power. The likelihood is that any new leadership will be drawn from the military. If the army engineers a coup, chances are that the move will be led by younger officers, men in their late 40s who are unlikely to take a favorable view of the party's policies. Explains Kiryu: "Those in their 60s and older, who experienced foreign colonial control, understand the Burmese Way to Socialism. But the younger people don't. They go home and see the poverty outside. They have started to question their society."
Whether or not the military will have to act could be decided by the party conference that begins this week. Resistance to reform from within the party might deepen the hostility of younger officers. And popular pressure could also prod the army to action. Protesters said one goal, the ouster of Sein Lwin, had been achieved, but another, the restoration of democracy, had not. As a poster that began appearing around Rangoon on Saturday proclaimed: WE ARE NOT SATISFIED.