The lull in the repression had flushed out the opposition. Now troops equipped with photos and lists of names searched from house to house, looking for anyone who had opposed the regime. Independent newspapers were banned; the civil service was purged of all those who had demonstrated; students and teachers had to guarantee not to take part in political activity.
By October, the country was quiet: the general strike ended when the SLORC demanded that people return to work.
SLORC tried to win a measure of popular approval, to give the appearance of a fresh start. The army distributed food to the poor, cleaned up Rangoon and ordered all inhabitants to repaint their houses. The country's name was changed to the Union of Myanmar, the Burmese-language name for Burma, and all references to socialism were dropped. The BSPP became the National Unity Party.
However, under considerable international pressure, SLORC could not easily renege on the commitment to hold multi-party elections. On September 24, opposition leaders including Suu Kyi and Tin Oo had founded the National League for Democracy (NLD) to fight the election. Another hundred political parties soon were formed.
Suu Kyi toured more than 50 towns that autumn, enlisting support for the NLD. Thousands turned out to see her, in defiance of the ban on meetings. A brilliant speaker and a fearless individual, she challenged the army and they dared not shoot or imprison her. At the end of December, her mother, Daw Khin Kyi, finally died. As the widow of Aung San, she was entitled to a semi-official funeral.
The funeral, on January 2, 1989, was the occasion for a massive and well-disciplined pro-democracy march through Rangoon - the first since 18 September. NLD flags were everywhere. The army kept in the background.
The funeral marked a watershed. In the first half of 1989, protests again gathered pace. But now they were much better organised, well-disciplined, non-violent.
In March, Ne Win, his old cronies - Sein Lwin, Dr Maung Maung - and the old BSPP leadership reappeared. The public was left in no doubt that they were still in charge. In June, the army again fired on demonstrators. Suu Kyi demanded the restoration of human rights and called for an end to the ban on political meetings. She accused SLORC of being a front for Ne Win, whom she held accountable for the nation's ills. Though the SLORC continued to vilify her, Suu Kyi's popularity had become enormous. She was addressing rallies almost daily and a new confrontation was brewing.
On 20 July, Suu Kyi and Tin Oo, chairman of the NLD, were accused of 'nurturing public hatred for the army' and placed under house arrest. Thousands of NLD workers were arrested, as were other political activists - Amnesty International put the figure at 3000. | 
