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SLORC's Moral dilemma (r)



Dear Steve, 

Thank you very much for your message which I received today - only just
returned to uni.  Greatly appreciated!

Do you have any idea about how the government is legitimising thier
policies with ASEAN? i.e. what "cultural" justifications they are giving
for the advantages of all Asian countries to stick together against the
"foreign destructionists" and yet at the same time maintaining their
interest in economic development and investment (which clearly comes from
the west)?



On 22 Dec 1997 sst@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Dear Lucy,
> 
> 
> >I am writing a paper for an anthropology degree, and am looking for
> >information/examples of how the SLORC (or SPDC as they now are) exploit
> >and manipulate religion (Buddhism) and traditional cultural values to
> >legitimise and justify their policies.
> 
> 
> 
> I have been to Burma four times during the past two years and I wish I could
> provide some concrete answers to your questions.  I could offer a lot of
> opinions, but I'm not certain if it's subjective examples you're looking for.
> 
> However, there is one thing that a very good Burmese friend of mine told me
> that may be of value to your project.  He told me that the government
> constantly lets the people know that the reason things are not so "good"
> these days and the reason that so many people are suffering has nothing to
> do with the government at all, but rather that these misfortunes are due to
> the fact that the Burmese people must not have lived very good lives in
> their past lives, and it is therefore their own fault!
> 
> Good luck with your paper.
> 
> Steve  
> 
>