The world had asked Myanmar's military rulers to postpone a national vote for a new constitution Saturday in order to focus on more than a million survivors of last week's devastating cyclone.

Nothing doing, said the ruling junta. Voting in the hardest-hit areas was postponed for two weeks. But state-run media instructed people elsewhere in Myanmar to vote Saturday: "If you are patriotic and you love your nation, you must give an affirmative vote," said one message.

Thus, while as many as 1.5 million people desperately need food, water, medicine and shelter, the military government is urging people to vote for ratification of a new constitution the regime claims will make the country more democratic.

It is curious, then, that one of the main provisions of the proposed constitution stipulates that only military officers can hold key government positions such as the ministries of defense, national security and border control.

One of the key opposition leaders, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained under house arrest 12 of the past 18 years, could not run for office, the Wall Street Journal points out. The reason? Her two sons, who once were Myanmar nationals, are now British citizens.

The rulers' fear of foreigners, especially Westerners, is stronger than their desire to help cyclone survivors. That is why international aid is moving so slowly in Myanmar and relief experts are being held back by the government.

As the Journal points out, the rulers, particularly Gen. Than Shwe, distrust outsiders. They believe only the military can unite Myanmar, which has 135 different ethnic groups and has endured several guerrilla wars.

But the insistence on holding the constitutional referendum amid the country's humanitarian crisis is incredible and callous.