"The brutal images and survivor accounts show a dreadful synchronicity. Once again families huddle around what possessions they salvaged from their homes before they were torched. Children scamper between rows of hangdog wood and bamboo huts. Adults appear frightened and listless. It is as if the hatred and violence that flourished on the equator over a decade ago in Indonesia has now migrated across the Southeast Asian landmass to Myanmar. In parallel, a nation has exchanged decades of military authoritarian rule for a period of wobbly political reform. And again vicious communal violence has threatened to derail the democratization process. Mounting evidence hints at a rear guard action by figures in the previous ruling military junta seeking to stoke enough instability to make democracy seem incompatible with stable authoritarian governance. As Myanmar follows the example of Indonesia and relinquishes a centralized authoritarian political system, will its hopeful road to multi-party democracy prove as deadly and tumultuous?.."