Nothing in a Name

Burma's military government has dropped its old tag, SLORC (State Law and Order Council). It's now the State Peace and Development Council.

But its repressive habits are unchanged. Democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi remains under tight surveillance and restriction. Some 2,000 members of her National League for Democracy languish in jail. A student leader was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison for writing a history of Burma's student movement.

Progress in Burma (also called Myanmar) demands, at the least, an official dialogue with the forces of democracy. Pending that, the regime's new name is a patent misnomer.