No turning back on democratic reform: Myanmar media

Yangon, May 31 (IANS) There will be no turning back on the process of democratic reform of the country, Myanmar's official media said Thursday.

It said that "the reform strategy the new government initiates is irreversible and there will be no backsliding or derailment in the road to democracy", reported Xinhua.

"Our transition to democracy is indeed not without challenges. We are prepared and resolute to overcome all these challenges and continue our endeavors until we achieve our stated goal," said an editorial in the daily New Light of Myanmar.

Myanmar has seen nearly five decades of military rule.

Citing President U Thein Sein, the editorial said the president himself called on the stakeholders to exercise bottom-to-up initiative rather than top-to-down approach to make ongoing reform more transparent and visionary.

"As reform is a long, arduous haul, the country uses the best international practice distilled from other global nations' experiences for its nascent reform to be more profound and meaningful," the editorial said.

Soon after Myanmar's new government took office March 30, 2011, it introduced a series of political, economic and administrative reform in the process of transition to democracy. Noting this the editorial said the reform process has come as a surprise to many in the international community who are waiting any subsequent policy changes to make a better assessment.