Burma: Dictators, disasters and consequences

As awful as the actual disaster was, the callous indifference of the Burmese dictatorship has made matters far worse. While the world community has literally pleaded with the junta to accept humanitarian relief, the military rulers of the country they call Myanmar, have viewed compassion with steely silence and scorn.

The ferocious stupidity of Myanmar’s ruling military junta defies logic; that is, until you realize that the generals have a perfectly logical reason to keep their country hermetically sealed from the rest of Southeast Asia and the world. The thugs running Burma don’t feel the pulse of public opinion polls, but rather wield brute power and control, plain and simple. In their estimation, the Burmese road to socialism and self-sufficiency should not be paved with humanitarian aid from foreigners.

Burma’s socialist rulers have long looked to the People’s Republic of China as both a political patron and military ally. Thus while Burma’s leadership has treated its own people like chattel, the rulers can equally be assured that Beijing will shield them from serious rebuke by the U.N. Security Council.

There’s a rich irony in the fact that America, British and French naval vessels arrived off the coast of Burma ready to deliver aid and humanitarian assistance; so near and yet so far. But the Burmese rulers just said No! After three weeks agonizingly waiting for permission to assist the civilian carnage in the Irrawaddy River delta, the foreign ships steamed away. The Burmese generals had won the Burmese people had lost. It’s now estimated Cyclone Nargis killed 120,000 people; and 1.4 million are in severely affected areas requiring priority aid, while a million more are impacted upon.

In mainland China’s Sichuan province, an earthquake of cataclysmic proportions jarred and jolted a huge region also killing perhaps 77,000 people. Contrary to Burma, Beijing’s emergency response was efficient and indeed even open to accepting assistance. Before long foreign aid was pouring in both from United Nations agencies and also from throughout the world including its political rival, the Republic of China on Taiwan.

1|2|Next Page>>

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email