VENERABLE Ashin Moonieinda holds little hope of tomorrow’s general election solving Burma’s problems — and doesn’t expect it to be as democratic as the ruling military junta wants the world to believe.“I feel sad for the people,” the Bendigo resident of more than three years says.“There is no chance to get success, because we know it is not a fair election.”The first general elections in 20 years involve 40 parties, but many Karen people in Bendigo share Venerable Ashin’s concerns.After all, this is a government that killed scores of monks and civilians taking part in peaceful protests in 2007. This is a government that lost the 1990 election, then refused to relinquish power to the National League for Democracy party, which won 80 per cent of seats in parliament.This is a government that arrested the NLD’s Aung San Suu Kyi before the 1990 elections, subsequently imprisoning her for 14 years.And this is a government that has used brutal military force to oppress its people, including ethnic groups like the Karen people, ever since.Venerable Ashin knows this at first hand.In 2000, he was a young monk returning to his rural village in Burma, after years training in a Buddhist monastery, to find his region under attack from the Burmese army. “The army came into the village and gang-raped a Karen woman who had a one-week old baby,” he says. “There were many soldiers and nobody could help her because of the soldiers’ guns.“After the army left, the villagers helped her, but there was not enough medicine and no doctor. The next day the woman died.”It’s the kind of atrocity that has become common in Burma in recent decades, Venerable Ashin says.“In the village at night time we couldn’t sleep in our house; we had to find a different place each night because of all the fighting and attacks.”Venerable Ashin says life in Burma is oppressive and taxes are high. “We have to give a tax to the Burmese Army, but we get no food or medical care from the government and we have very poor education in the rural areas.”He says tomorrow’s election, in which a third of the seats are reserved for the military, will not result in any change.“Many countries see that Burma does not treat its people well – they see the torture and the repression. The election is just to show that Burma has democracy, but it doesn’t.“Even if people vote for another party, the military will be back in power. They have already won.”His friend, Bendigo resident Ko Daung, agrees. “It is not a real election,” Mr Ko says.Mr Ko, 58, is a former journalist and magazine editor whose penchant for exposing human rights abuses in Burma landed him in trouble with authorities after the 1988 student uprising.“I was writing about all ethnic groups and how they were treated, and this upset the government.“I wrote many articles before the government stopped me and said I couldn’t write any more.”Mr Ko fled to the jungle with many students after the violence and, though not Karen, he joined up with the Karen army to survive. The government, meanwhile, had arrested his family and kept them locked up for two months before confining them to house arrest. Venerable Ashin says Mr Ko’s story is a common one. Many Karen people have fled across the border to Thailand, where tens of thousands remain in refugee camps.About 200 Karen people have come to Bendigo from these camps, Venerable Ashin says, and they hope that peace and democracy will one day let them return to their homeland. “Many people here want freedom so they can go back to visit or live, but they don’t think they will ever get it. Many of the young Karen people here were born in the refugee camp in Thailand. So they have never been to Burma. “People in Burma will never have freedom under this government. We need help from other countries.”Earlier this week, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said the Australian government would closely monitor the outcome of the elections.“These (elections) fall way short of anything vaguely approximating a democratic norm,” he told the ABC.“Political parties are still banned – a number of them at least – and there are huge restrictions in the way in which people can campaign in these elections.“We will be working through a range of further international options in dealing with the continued repression, as it has been up until now, of democracy by the Burmese junta.”A solution to Burma’s problems seems a long way off, but Venerable Ashin says many Karen people in Bendigo look forward to one day voting as Australian citizens.“It is very important to be able to vote, because we can elect a good leader to manage and organise people to improve their lives and bring them peace.”