Myanmar unveils new national flag

Military-ruled Myanmar unveiled a new national flag on Thursday, just two weeks before an election that the government calls a major step in a transition to democracy but critics say is a sham.

Government offices replaced the old standard with the new one at exactly 3 p.m. At a fire station in central Yangon, blue-uniformed officers lined up at attention during the replacement ceremony.

The new flag has horizontal stripes of yellow, green and red with a big white star in the middle.

The announcement of the new flag was made on state television just prior to the ceremonies, which were supposed to take place simultaneously all over the country.

"We received the instruction to bring down the old flag and to fly the new flag at 3 p.m.," said an education officer in Pathein township in Irrawaddy Division, who added that shortly before the ceremony his office still had not received its replacement.

The 2008 constitution pushed through by the military called for fresh national symbols, including a new flag whose colors of yellow, green and red would stand for solidarity, peace and tranquility, and courage and decisiveness. Still, the abrupt release of the new flag came as surprise.

The Nov. 7 election is the first since 1990, when the National League for Democracy party of detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory but was not allowed to take power. Critics of the junta charge that the new constitution and new election laws are written to ensure that the military continues to be the country's dominant political force.

A yellow, green and red flag was used during the Japanese occupation in 1943-1945, though the emblem in the center then was a dancing peacock. A fighting peacock is a symbol used by the country's democratic opposition, including Suu Kyi's now-disbanded party.

The flag being replaced — introduced by the socialist government of late strongman Ne Win in 1974 — has a red field with a blue rectangle in the left corner bearing a cog wheel and a rice plant encircled by 14 stars representing the country's seven regions and seven states.