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Mailbag : Junta has no moral r
- Subject: Mailbag : Junta has no moral r
- From: suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 04 Nov 1998 00:26:00
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