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Mailbag : Junta has no moral r



Subject: Mailbag :      Junta has no moral right      to speak for Burmese 

Mailbag 

      Junta has no moral right
      to speak for Burmese

      Once again, intellectual laziness or woolly
      thinking strikes again as indicated by the
      headlining of an Oct 1 news report on
      Radio Australia: ''Burma increases
      pressure on Aung San Suu Kyi''. 

      This doesn't make much sense. Why is
      ''Burma'', whose people voted
      overwhelmingly for Aung San Suu Kyi in the
      1990 elections, increasing pressure on
      her? Has she done something wrong
      against Burma or its people and their
      interest? 

      What is ''Burma''? Is it the ruling junta? Can
      a bunch of men in military uniforms, who
      have been holding the whole country
      hostage at gun-point be referred to as
      ''Burma''? 

      Why not say: ''The military junta increases
      pressure on Burma and Aung San Suu
      Kyi'', instead of distorting a simple and
      plain fact? 

      The equating of an unlawful and
      twice-rejected junta with Burma amounts to
      doing the people of Burma, who have
      suffered grievously from the cancer of
      military misrule since 1962, a great
      injustice. 

      I hope the shakers of the media world and
      opinion-makers everywhere will in future be
      careful not to resort to shorthand -- no
      matter how tempting or convenient -- when
      doing so violates both the truth of the matter
      and the people of Burma. 

      Chao-Tzang Yawnghwe