Winston
Churchill said in 1939 that Russia is “a
riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an
enigma”. Today, Burma fits in
Churchill’s description more than any other
country, except perhaps North Korea. No wonder the
two rogue states have moved closer in the past few
years. The revelation about Burma developing
nuclear and missile capabilities is apparently the
result of the ‘Shangri-La
Dialogue’.
The military junta
is now planning farcical elections later this
year. It is the indifference of the neighbors and
the international community that has emboldened
the wily generals to go ahead with what it calls a
“seven-step roadmap towards disciplined and
flourishing democracy”. Under the new
constitution, 25 per cent seats in both houses of
parliament have been reserved for the military.
This political empowerment is first of its kind
anywhere in the world. Amendment of the
constitution would require the approval of more
than 75 per cent of votes.
Clearly, the new
constitution has been designed to perpetuate the
military rule. An election commission has been set
up which is composed of ex-generals. Two dozen
generals have shed their uniform in order to take
part in the forthcoming
elections.
The National League for
Democracy (NLD) headed by Aung San Suu Kyi is of
course boycotting the sham elections. One of the
conditions for its participation was that the
party does expel Ms Suu Kyi that the NLD rejected.
Now the military regime has come out with another
devious plan to weaken the NLD. Its symbol of a
Burmese hat which during the 1990 election became
iconic among the pro-democracy movement has been
allotted to splinter group, National Democratic
Force. NLD Leaders are presently organizing road
shows to meet grassroots
members.
Burma is
perhaps the only country where residents are
issued five kinds of cards—the national ID
card, the scrutinized citizen card, the foreign
citizen card, the temporary national ID card, and
a card known as ‘pyu naingan tha’. The
Muslims are among the most discriminated. In
Arakan state, white colour card is issued to
Muslims which lists the card holder’s race
as Muslim and religion as Islam. Curiously, the
back side of the card says this person does not
have the right to claim Burmese
citizenship.
The Burmese generals
sitting in the new capital, Naypyidaw, have been
doing suspicious business with North Korea. The
reclusive junta is of the view that nuclear
empowerment and missile acquisition will give it
legitimacy and greater clout vis-à-vis its
neighbours.
Burma’s nuclear and missile
programmes have to be seen in the context of the
junta’s xenophobia and pathological
suspicions of the outside world. Gen Than Swe, the
Burmese strongman, who came to power in 1992,
apparently believes if he followed the North
Korean example, Burma would not need to care about
the US or even China. In other words, if they had
nuclear weapons, others will respect
them.
It is said that with
North Korea's aid, the reactor in Naung Laing
could be completed around 2012, and Burma could
develop its first deliverable nuclear weapons by
2020. The generals are apparently spending vast
sums on the programme. While the people of Burma
are suffering from acute hunger and misery,
the generals have used the income from the sale of
natural resources to fund the purchase of
sophisticated equipment and the training of
thousands of Burmese engineers abroad mostly
Russia.
The junta is likely to get much
more revenue from the sale of gas to China and
India. Much of the money will apparently go for
the nuclear programme. To a large extent the blame
for North Korea and Burma’s deviant
international behaviour rests with China whose
economic and moral support has emboldened rogue
regimes to raise their ugly heads.
Last year, 112 former world leaders wrote
to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asking him to
visit Burma. But a caustic reply from his office
was that without reasonable expectations of a
meaningful outcome, he will not be able to go.
Perhaps the former heads of state and government
would have served the cause of the struggling
Burmese people better by asking their own
governments to change their policies towards
‘bulletocracy’.
India’s policy towards the military
junta is no less muddied. New Delhi is hardly an
exemplar for all those struggling for democracy.
Gone are the days when India took satisfaction in
being right than in being diplomatic. Today,
silence and discretion are preferable to
moralizing. India’s quest for global power
status and its hunger for Burmese oil and gas may
even prompt it to certify the junta’s
“discipline-flourishing democracy.”
The general’s junta is more useful than the
general’s janata.
