Injustice in Myanmar
Published October 9, 2007
By Colin Lucas
A feeling of helplessness shrouds me as I consider the monks and citizens of Myanmar, many of whom, in large scale pro-democracy protests two weeks ago, were barnyard slaughtered by the military junta regime that “governs” their country.
Peaceful, monk-led protests last week brought to the world stage the struggle to bring democracy to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma — a struggle that has had about as much success as Ralph Nader in securing the Oval Office.
The military regime opened fire with automatic weapons on crowds of protesters killing between ten and two hundred people, depending on the source. Thousands have been detained, dragged from their sleep into the street, and shoved by the busload into Myanmar’s notorious prisons. Myanmar’s leading pro-democracy activist, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years.
So why do I feel helpless in a comfortable university campus on the other side of the world?
Consider these three options. The US or some other country can intervene militarily and facilitate the democratization of Myanmar. The UN can send in peacekeeping troops to diffuse tensions. Or China can assert its regional influence, but that is simply not going to happen because China itself is one of the world’s leading slaughterhouses for political dissidents. So that leaves the US or the UN.
Shit.
If Myanmar has even the smallest glimmer of hope for becoming democratic, even if that only entails voting who gets to be organizer of the annual Yangon Monks’ Association bake sale, then it is best if President Bush simply turns a blind eye to the current political upheaval taking place in the small Asian-Pacific nation.
Every time George W. Bush inserts himself into some sort of democratic process- be it an election within a 225 year-old democracy (ours) or the creation of a new democratic state in some foreign desert- he butchers it. So, if the monks have any chance of changing an authoritarian Myanmar into a democracy then they better pray to Buddha that Bush doesn’t touch their country with a ten thousand mile pole.
Precluding unilateral action by the US (we have no real interests there, and we are already stuck in a quagmire in Iraq), that leaves some sort of international cooperation effort as a final option.
As for the UN, it is nothing more than a discussion forum of spineless desk jockeys who come together to have competitions over who can, in the most words, evade giving straight answers about important international affairs. They’ll be bungling with semantics for the next three months before coming to any conclusions, at which time the junta will be well enough insulated in their new hidden jungle capital as to be immune from the UN anyhow.
If the UN does act, it’ll send out troops wearing baby blue berets with orders not to shoot. Intimidating.
So the UN is useless, if the US tried to help it would only worsen the situation in Myanmar, and the brutality marches on. As per the current international trend in dealing with oppressive regimes, no action will be taken by any outside government to diffuse the Myanmar situation. And the UN, due to its inaction and in spite of its stated goals of upholding human rights, will be complicit in the slaughter of Monks and other Burmese.
Sure, I could join some sort international solidarity group online, collect pennies for the monks, or attend a protest in favor of democracy in Myanmar, but none of these will stop the injustices.
Where does that leave Myanmar? Well, it appears that world leaders have unified under the banner of empty rhetoric that symbolizes a statement they wish to shout aloud but lack the courage to do so. That statement: If you want democracy, you are going to have to earn it for yourself, fuckers.
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