[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

EDITORIAL OPINION-Burma has little



EDITORIAL OPINION-Burma has little  enough to celebrate
   Sunday 4th of January, Bangkok Post

                                     Fifty years of
                                     "independence"
                                     would appear to
                                     have given the
                                     Burmese people
                                     precious little to be
                                     grateful for, and even
                                     less reason for
                                     optimism. Rather
                                     than any sense of
                                     growing
                                     enlightenment, the
                                     anniversary brings
                                     only gloom.

                                     Bedeviled by internal dissent,
                                     scorned by the international
                                     community, strapped for cash,
                                     Burma has little if anything to
                                     celebrate today, the 50th
                                     anniversary of its
                                     independence.

                                     India and Pakistan, though
                                     politically at sea and leery of
                                     each other's intentions
                                     regarding Kashmir, could at
                                     least justify their own
                                     independence day fireworks
                                     earlier this year. Both were
                                     rapidly becoming hefty players
                                     in the beleaguered Asian
                                     money markets and both had
                                     played generous if not
                                     altogether charming hosts to
                                     Britain's Queen Elizabeth.

                                     Burma may have to settle for a
                                     hand-held sparkler. At least it
                                     found a rather bewildering role
                                     to play this year in the
                                     Association of Southeast Asian
                                     Nations, although the European
                                     Union's door still remains
                                     locked to Burma and Burma
                                     alone.

                                     The generals of the State
                                     Peace and Development
                                     Council will no doubt claim
                                     much more as the banners
                                     flutter aloft today.

                                     They will point out that
                                     reconciliatory negotiations
                                     began this year with the
                                     opposition National League for
                                     Democracy. They will not
                                     mention that those talks came
                                     to an abrupt halt as soon as it
                                     became clear to the League
                                     that its leader, Aung San Suu
                                     Kyi, remained persona non
                                     grata to the powers-that-be.

                                     The generals will note that
                                     government corruption was all
                                     but wiped out with November's
                                     cabinet reshuffle under the
                                     regime's new title. They will not
                                     acknowledge that a State Law
                                     and Order Restoration Council
                                     is by any other name still a
                                     "Slorc".

                                     Nor will they concede that the
                                     only corruption the world really
                                     cares about when it comes to
                                     Burma is that of its iron-fisted,
                                     morally bankrupt rulers who
                                     refuse to grant their people
                                     basic human rights, and in fact
                                     repeatedly cheat their citizens
                                     out of their rights.

                                     Nor will they address the
                                     fundamental error in recent
                                     Burmese history: denial of the
                                     NLD's overwhelming victory in
                                     the 1991 election and the
                                     subsequent imprisonment of
                                     Suu Kyi and other leading
                                     "dissidents".

                                     Nor will the generals discuss
                                     the fundamental irony in recent
                                     Burmese history: that Suu Kyi,
                                     the Nobel Peace Prize winner
                                     who remains under virtual
                                     house arrest, is the daughter of
                                     Aung San, the late national
                                     hero whose efforts 50 years
                                     ago produced exactly the
                                     reason for today's
                                     commemoration.

                                     Ever since Ne Win grabbed
                                     power in 1962, the armed
                                     forces have been the key to
                                     maintaining law and order. The
                                     world was a different place
                                     then; the military's continuing
                                     dominance is an anachronism
                                     today.

                                     Celebrate independence? How
                                     does one celebrate freedom
                                     while in chains? Suu Kyi cannot
                                     move about without
                                     harassment; she is truly in
                                     chains. The Burmese people
                                     have seen their currency vanish
                                     and foreign reserves dry up;
                                     they are enslaved to the
                                     government's ideology of
                                     desperation. The country will
                                     not be admitted to other
                                     international cooperative
                                     ventures anytime soon; it is
                                     enchained to old ways and
                                     diehard regimentalism.

                                     "As I see it," one
                                     Burma-watcher told AFP this
                                     week, "things have for better or
                                     worse sedimented into a
                                     situation reminiscent of
                                     pre-1988 ... empty bellies,
                                     empty state coffers and moral
                                     degradation."