SPDC: Monkeys and Generals

[Tanpyan@xxxxxxx]

SPDC: Monkeys, Generals and Thingyan Canon
by Criticus (27-8-99)

  SPDC generals' repeated denials that they are not monkeys seem to have
puzzled some Burma watchers; because nobody has compared them with
monkeys. And yet they keep on saying that they are not monkeys and they
don't want bananas.

  "We are not monkeys," Brig-General David Abel, a minister in the
office of the chairman of the SPDC told the AFP reporter on 26-8-99. So
"You don't give us bananas," he says of moves to link international aid
to concessions to NLD. "We know that isolation is not desirable, we know
that we should not be isolated anymore. But to be dictated, and
dominated and bullied, that is not our trend of life." 

   Several months ago SPDC Foreign Minister Win Aung furiously denied
that he and his colleagues were not a bunch of monkeys, that they won't
give in to an external pressure for bananas and that they won't swallow
this kind of economic bait. He has certainly made clear that he and his
colleagues do not want to be treated as monkeys from a banana republic.
So don't give them bananas, they already have plenty.

   "When a monkey got a coconut he'll play with it because he does not
know how to use it" says a Burmese proverb. Burmese people frequently
use this proverb when they talk about Ne Win and his followers who
squandered foreign aid in billion between 1962 and 1988. They received
substantial aid but they did not know how to use it like the monkey in
the proverb. This might be one of the reasons the SPDC generals keep on
saying that they are not monkeys.

  They may also have felt that they are less important or less respected
than officials of other ASEAN countries. This feeling of inferiority
complex makes them bellicose and repugnant to suggestions from outside
world. "We don't move with a carrot and a stick," Abel told AFP. "We are
very flexible. But, with our national pride, we are not anybody's
puppet." As evidence of their flexibility, Abel cited the visits by the
International Committee of the Red Cross to Insein jail and the visits
by the EU team in July and by Australian human rights commissioner Chris
Sidoti in August. "That shows our flexibility," Abel said.  

  A vainglorious extrovert is prepared to go to any length so long as he
can make a great impression on other people. He is the crow in the fable
who wears peacock feathers. When such a person does a work of merit in
Burma, such as almsgiving to Buddhist monks, he will proclaim from the
top of the marquee that he is the almsgiver. In seeking limelight to
satisfy his vanity he'll go from pretension to pretension. 

  Vanity goes hand in hand with boastfulness and blustering. So you will
often meet SPDC officials whose big talk is lacking in weight. The
Burmese people cynically compare the official boasting and vaunting to
the booming of a New Year's Day canon.(Thingyan Amyauk) meaning hollow
boast. [Burmese officials used to fire blank ammunition to announce the
beginning of the Burmese new year.]  In the world of SPDC where "the
military leaders believe that "the moon shines in the hollow of the
bamboo" beggars can be choosers as well.

  The SPDC ministers have publicly declared that they are not monkeys
and that they will not accept bananas. But traditionally a superstitious
Burmese usually refuses to accept a small gift or offer if he has an
expectation of a bigger one. (Hsinpyudaw wein hmar chiphu ta pin ne
kyein kyay) meaning the prospect of getting a white elephant is
cancelled by the receipt of a single white cotton thread.

( by Criticus, 27-8-99)