select3 : AB99-7

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No.99-7                                           Analytica Burmanie
THE CENTRAL ISSUE IN BURMA POLITICS: WHO "OWNS" THE STATE? 

Unfotunately, we hear a lot of noise, a babble of sound, whenever Burma 
is mentioned -- in newspapers, magazines, TV reports, UN debates, in 
cabinet rooms, at foreign offices, the diplomatic cocktail circuits, 
among jet-set UN do-gooders, or wherever. It does seem that a lot of 
people are fixated with a dozen and one pet obsessions, and they all 
skirt, or rather cleverly, even brilliantly, prance around the central 
issue in Burma politics. 
   The central issue in Burma politics boils down to one single point: 
who "owns" the state, and therefore possesses the right to exercise power 
and shape the fate of people living in Burma? 
   Since 1962, the military -- just one element of the state -- 
"captured" the state, and it has since monopolized power. It has used 
this power to enrich generals and top officers (and their cronies, 

family, relatives, et al). And worse than that, men in uniform have -- 
with TOTAL IMPUNITY and IMMUNITY -- raped, murdered, tortured, imprisoned 
without cause or fair trials, pillaged, looted, burned, exploited, 
extorted, moved people forcibly like cattle and sheeps, and so on. 
   The unusual, or most sickening way the military and ruling generals 
have used power has however been ignored, or not properly focused on by 
the international community, various pundits, policy makers, and UN civil 
servants (jet-setting all over the place, conferencing in luxurious 
settings). 
   It is as if the way power has been used (or rather criminally misused 
and abused) by ruling generals and lawless men in uniform is the norm, or 
something small, so insignificant, that should be overlooked, with winks 
and sly nudges, by wise and knowing men and women of the world. 
   The struggle in Burma -- over 30 years -- is the struggle of the 
people to cure the country of the military cancer. The struggle is about 
taking the state away from uniformed killers, babdits, rapists. 
   Yet, well-fed, well-dressed, safe and secure, worldly-wise men and 
women of the world do not seem to get it. Instead, they talk, with long 
faces, about the "humanitarian crisis" in Burma, about how different 
Asian (and Burmese) values are, or about personalities -- Ne Win, Suu 
Kyi, Michael, Khin Nyunt, and so on, as if politics in Burma is a TV 
drama. Some even scream of not having electricity in Rangoon (how 
inconvenient), shake their heads and talk about the necessity for 
economic development and investment (as if investment is charity, purely 
for the benefit of the Burmese people, to uplift them, poor things). 
   The Rangoon generals and their uniformed goons are not about to give 
up the state and power vested in it -- it is so pleasurable to be able to 
do what one pleases with the lives of the people, their property, land, 
houses and homes, their bodies (and labor), and their daughters, wives, 
sweethearts. Why would those reaping the benefits of lawlessness, backed 
by guns and bayonets wish, to return to the barracks? They may be 
intellectually challenged, but they are certainly not that stupid.  
   The entrenchment, at gunpoint, of the military within the state is, 
unfortunately, not a matter that the worldly-wise wishes to address, or 
even acknowledge (it is too uncomfortable, bad for digestion). It is so 
horrible, so exhausting. Let the Burmese deal with it as best as they 
can, seems to be the consensus. It is their nightmare, not ours. 
   Yet, truth to tell, the people are not allowed to deal with the 
nightmare. They are, rather, urged to fight bayonets, tanks, mortar and 
artillery shells with their bare hands, with only their voice, with ink, 
and with chests bared. 
   The international consensus is "no violence" -- not even in 
self-defence, not even if you are evicted at gunpoint from your homes, 
your women raped and killed, your children orphaned or slaughtered. 
   It is time perhaps for the U.N. to pass a meaningful resolution on 
Burma, a resolution which says, clearly and loudly, that the people of 

Burma have an unequivocable right to defend themselves, their property, 
livelihood, their family and children, and their women. How about it? 
   A U.N. resolution firmly recognizing the right of the people of Burma 
to defend themselves might do more for Burma than nintendo bombs and 
missles, stealth bombers, and F-16s -- not that their deployment 
vis-a-vis Burma, is even remotely contemplated by anyone. 


Analytica Birmanie
25 March 1999
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