Burma's junta and crimes against humanity

Day when Cyclone Nargis struck Burma:

May 3, 2008

Headline in The Straits Times on May 26, 2008:

"Turning point in tackling cyclone crisis: UN Chief urges more access for aid workers as junta warns against politicisation" (emphasis added)


Reading about the possible 'turning point' in the crisis that the Burmese are mired in now, any feeble feelings of relief and hope generated must surely be quickly replaced by a sense of unadulterated outrage and utter disgust at the junta's warning againist politicisation.

It only shows the psyche and hallmark of a despotic regime, whose first and foremost objective is to ensure that the regime survives and continues to exercise absolute power. The mere prospect that some form of authority might be ceded to an external power is enough to make them paranoid. Yes, despots are paranoid, and their perpetuation of power feeds on a constant paranoia - fear that their subjects would overthrow them (witness the junta's crackdown on the saffron-robed monks not long ago); fear that outsiders would jump at the slightest opportunity to expedite their downfall.

More than an indictment of their incompetence (this we knew all along), the junta's inadequate response to the cyclone crisis shows their obesession with power and control. Surely, they must be thinking that its people and the international community would not mind if the chance to oust them comes up fortuitously (indeed if only this were the case).

And so for weeks the junta had refused foreign aid and denied humanitarian workers access to the disaster area. One can only rationalize this in the context of a closed and reclusive regime who places utmost concern on the maintenance and exercise of power. This necessarily dictates that they must be wary of all external powers - especially if the latter have a record of criticising their rule - their intentions and actions inclusive.

More than three weeks have passed since the cyclone struck and brought untold misery to a people already living miserably under a brutal regime. And yet now we are only talking about a likely 'turning point'. How many lives have gone to waste and how much more widely and deeply have diseases spread during this period?

China's handling of its own crisis in the aftermath of the Wenchuan earthquake has been held up as a contrast to Burma's situation, highlighting especially the complete uselessness and cruelty of the junta in Burma. But this is hardly the point.

That the junta is recalcitrant, intransigent, brutal and has no moral and legitimate authority to govern is a recongised and affirmed fact. But what the ongoing crisis does is to crystallize all that the junta is known for and capable of: a deplorable and morally void government that commits unspeakable crimes against its people.