Myanmar’s Military Despotism

evawhite on May 14th, 2008

In all my years as a teenager and then as an adult, the name of Aung San Suu Kyi has cropped up from time to time in the news, a brave woman non violently battling the might of the Burmese military junta ceaselessly now for decades. It was when she won the Nobel Peace prize in the early 1990s that the whole world finally took notice of her struggle. Under house arrest for most of the last two decades, she has neither been allowed to leave her country even to be with her family nor has her family been permitted to come and visit her. As a result she was not allowed to visit her husband even when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and who later died without her being able to be by his side in his final moments.

What has recently refocused world attention on Myanmar’s military junta is the farcical referendum held in the midst of the death and devastation wreaked by cyclone Nargis that left a staggering 60,000 or more dead or missing. The referendum held on 10 May sought public approval of a new constitution sought to be put in place by the Military dictatorship that has ruled Myanmar with an iron hand, which critics have opined will do nothing except strengthen the ruling military’s might and further undermine any democratic process. In any case anyone voting against the referendum is hardly an option for the citizens.

The violent and destructive cyclone that hit the country did not detract the authoritarian regime from going ahead with the referendum. If fact what the Burmese government has done is take advantage of the situation by using the cyclone relief process to drum up propaganda for their own agenda. The aid that has been coming in from around the world has been stamped with the ruling generals’ name and then distributed among the affected people. The military junta takes over all aid that arrives and doles it out to the suffering public like largesses of its own volition.

The human rights violations continue to be rife in the troubled nation of Myanmar. I wonder why the United States does not go in and try to liberate the Burmese people? It certainly purported to do this in Iraq and Afghanistan!

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Tags: afghanistan, Aung San Suu Kyi, cyclone nargis, despotism, military, myanmar
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