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Jun. 19, 2007 Burma, an unfortunate country somewhere inside the global village known today as Myanmar is on my mind today. On my mind because of sordid events that are accumulating. Burma is notorious the world over for one thing: a military dictatorship that digs deeper in into infamy. Very brutal communal Generals are holding the nation down for so long a time. These die-hard Generals have turned Burma into a banana republic where basic human rights and needs are non-existent, an iron-curtain society where oppression walks in four legs! Internal native colonialists they have effortlessly turned Burma into a conundrum, a basket case of a failed state in a desperate search for a way forward in a confused dark-tunnel setting. There is no better person that symbolizes the pro-democracy struggle in former Burma than Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi and her opposition National League for Democracy. This courageous woman has been placed under house arrest for years by the Generals seeing her as the greatest threat to their murderous hold on power. Yet her resolve to soldier on has not waned by this callous subjugation of her private and personal liberties. Year after year the anonymous Generals renew the house arrest order preventing Suu Kyi from enjoying her God-given freedom. What intrigues the mind in the Burmese dictatorial situation is the fact that beyond condemnations and solidarity speeches toward the victimized Burmese the Western governments and the much-vaunted democracy and its enthronement the world over has not given a firm warning to the Generals in Myanmar to reform the state they are holding by the jugular or risk (not sanctions) but outright military intervention a la Yugoslavia/Kosovo. While White House and Downing Street agents are quick to condemn the dictators in Burma no strong policy is in place to mitigate the continuing suferring of the Burmese population condemned to sweeping blinding political slavery. Political slavery that finds expression only in the culture of silence and subservience imposed by the oppressors on the oppressed majority. Or maybe because Burma has no natural resources like crude oil or is seen as not a strategic country there's no need intervening forcefully and directly in altering the nasty political reality there? If Burma were to be blessed like Iraq or Kuwait with this black gold would the case have been different? Questions galore but no answers to satisfy a conscience that is bruised and eager for a radical solution. With each new day that passes by the Burmese poor people with Madam Suu Kyi in prominence suffer enormous devaluation of selves and values. And there is no end in sight to this national atrophy. Who then will save Burma? If the international community shies away from offering genuine situation-changing help I wonder how and where assistance cometh from. But there's always hope in a tragic situations like these: God has not said His final word! And whenever He does then there's bound to be a miraculous mighty hand surgically operating a miracle way beyond the immediate comprehension of the mortal man. Beyond empty rethorics that only beg the question concrete actions need to be taken to strike at political terror in Burma before more victims are made out of a terrible suffocating situation that leaves no room for manouver by pro-democracy activists and no room for development. Enough of the terror machine on the streets of the Burmese capital city and elsewhere in the God-forsaken land. Enough of the military braggadacio. It's time to tame the monster of the jackboot! Enough of kakhi impunity! The blanket outlawing of democracy agitations is giving the terrorists in power the leverage to continue their terrorism unchallenged; this must stop forthwith! The new world order being championed by Bush's America cannot make meaningful impact if rogue Republics like Myanmar are not engaged constructively and if need be militarily to avert chaos and anarchy. It is perhaps a bad commentary to say that in the 21st century we are still living witnesses to a purely anti-democratic regime parading military brasshats whom no one knows who is responsible for the rot in Burma. The Burmese democracy challenge must be fixed and the sooner the better. Abandoning detained Mrs Suu Kyi or her brutalised followers to bear the brunt of confronting a tyranny that develops only the military institution for repressive goals and ends is in bad taste. The international community has what it takes (minus the absence of political will) to undo what is developing as an organized state of surrender of a hapless people in the face of a well-oiled dictatorship that has no name or particular person to heap blame on. Ever since democracy was murdered in 1990 by the incontinental dictators in an election which the opposition led by Suu Kyi was poised for victory things have fallen apart with Burma regressing deeper into a totalitarian enclave where aspirations for improvement on the people's lot are constantly stifled. What is good for the East Timorese and Kosovo people should be good also for the Burmese people under the jackboot. The American-led coalition against despots and despotism around the world ought to activate its arsenal ready for another battle in Myanmar. I hold in the final analysis that it'll be worth the effort, it's worth a decisive try. The terror-stricken streets of Rangoon must of necessity be de-terrorised for the people to breathe anew the breeze of freedom, the breeze of free unencumbered choice of leaders accountable for their deeds. ------------ About the author: Sunny Chris Okenwa is a U-K contributor based in Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire. Email: soco_abj_2006_rci@hotmail.fr Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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