The by-elections, which was dubbed by some as “sell elections,” meaning they were held for the purpose of selling to the international community the idea that Burma has turned over to a new leaf (better still, that the tiger has all of a sudden become vegetarian), have prompted several comments from Burma observers, both at home and abroad.

Apart from the apt choice of All Fools’ Day to hold them, which have naturally given rise to the inevitable question, “Who is Myanmar out to fool this time?,” there are some facts that I think are of major significance:

The said elections were not so much about whose policies the people support and which candidates they like. It was rather a fight between the three sacred institutions: that of the Old Guard, One Dominant Personality and Ethnicity.

In practice, it means you voted for the USDP either out of hope you would continue to enjoy the privileges the Old Guard has given you or out of deep-rooted fear instilled in you since 1962.

It also means you voted for the candidate chosen by Aung San Suu Kyi because she’s everything to you and you believed she could do no wrong.

In the same vein, it means you voted for the candidates for the Shan party even though you had never heard of them before the elections. All you needed to know was they were Shans and running under the Shan banner.

If the by-elections have proven one thing, it’s that for Burma, a country of different ethnicities, democracy, or the rule of the majority, alone won’t work. If it does, then Sai Sam Min, a Shan ‘nobody’, would have been overlooked by the Shan constituents. His election shows that if democracy has to work in this country, it would need not only the rule of the majority but a deep, if grudging, respect for the minorities and their rights.

Another point of significance is that this year’s by-election results will pave the way for the 2015 elections. If they continue to be as free, fair and transparent like the Sunday by-elections, 2015 will undoubtedly be a big year for the fighters for freedom. The only requirement is that The Lady remains in good health and free from (not fear but) enmity and danger.

Of course, it all depends on how much the Old Guard is prepared to give up. If it is only for the sake of lifting the sanctions, then all the good things we see today may come to an end soon. But if all the pro-change stakeholders join hands together and push, 2015 may turn out to be the point of no return (unhappily) for the Old Guard and (happily) for the people of Burma who have suffered for so long under its rule.