Disciplined Democracy and the Generals of Modern Burma

Disciplined Democracy and the Generals of Modern Burma
By Min Khin Kyaw
8 January 2008
http://aminor-amajor.blogspot.com/
The SPDC has claimed they’re democratizing Burma and it’s kept saying its seven step roadmap is for the sincere democracy of Burma.

If this is true, why has it jailed many pro-democracy activists? How many of them? And with lengthy jail-termes with all sorts of poor conditions and mistreatments; some had been detained with no particular reason, some had died in jails, and some were murdered and no culprits were arrested. And also there are the ones, certainly U Win Tin a prominent journalist and poet, who have already served their terms but still being kept!

But aren’t these the ones trying to democratise Burma? Aren’t they the ones sacrificing their lives for freedoms and democracy?

So the junta differentiates between democracies: their democracy is westernized and this is ours ‘disciplined democracy’?

Well, what’s wrong with western democracy? The junta would never explain!!! Why would they? As they don’t really have a reason anyway!

So let’s think about the junta, or the generals’ disciplined democracy! Will people be able to business freely? Will they have a say in any law that applied to restrict their daily life? Will they be able to get contact with international community? Well, just keep on questioning until what this disciplined democracy becomes clear.

But certainly the generals will not remove their uniforms whilst keeping various civil offices. They will certainly keep the guns around. They will certainly shut anybody who open up and still shooting spree in the jungles against the indigenous communities where nobody can report with pictures and video and post on YouTube.

And the junta has been determined to go ahead with its seven step roadmap:

Step 1: you’re always suspected with treason because you’re a Burmese; you must accept you can be arrested without any reason (or the reason is you’re a student or NLD activist).

Step 2: you’re always looked at and your activities are monitored; you must understand that what you didn’t do can become what you did.

Step 3: you must abide by the law of individual authority (a rat or a pig even). You must not complain or talk back. You must be ready to open your door when they come day or night

Step 4: you must bribe if you want something, just anything. Or whatever the military wants you must give.

Step 5: you must accept that the military is you father and mother. So you must also accept the generals become rich by any means – including confiscating your land or property. You must appreciate the top general’s daughter wore 50 millions worth diamonds even though it makes you to starve (as economy is growing well.)

Step 6: you must attend to rallies as a volunteer and must shout military slogan that you support the military as the sole lawful government that whoever dares to question this must go to hell; if you don’t attend you must go to hell. As part of that, you must accept Gen Than Shwe as King Than Shwe, if you don’t … And now he has become buddha Than Shwe so you must also worship him or you will go to …

Step 7 : this is the most important step so you must go to hell.

Well that is the seven step roadmap. The generals think people really love them.


Now, leave these democracies only to look away/around at the current conditions of peoples’ lives! The junta has claimed it has built the economy with desirable growth (to hell), standard education (with the universities being spied and monitored) and cultural conditions (no long hair but short- like a soldier? Well, it’s disciplined democracy!) Certainly you will be put under several funny rules just to make you disciplined.

Despite knowing all these happening,

Assume, they way the supporters of the junta do, it is really, really, really sincere in democratization even though it can’t it use non-violent ways upon non-violent people, even though it can’t be polite, even though it can’t be good at governance, management to make the nation prosper, even though it keeps plundering anything it saw on its way – like the certain ants, and even though so on and so forth.

Many Burmese have become refugees and illegal workers in the region but the generals never talk about them. People have been in such undignified states of poverty and being looked down for decades already. Except the generals – they are rich and arrogant; and they can shop around the best stores in a country like Singapore. Shouldn’t the entire country feel proud of them?

And the entire region bow to them and pay respect to them; you may say it’s the power of gem stones, oil, gas, rich fishery, important forestry resources, etc but without the making of the generals themselves this couldn’t have happened; so aren’t these generals the great sons of Burma?

Despite the democratic activists have being calling for genuine dialogue, although the generals said they would do just that, they have been stockpiling weaponries as much as they can reach, including riot police training, from the countries near or afar. Buying arms by selling natural resources to those opportunistic governments and using the arms for not protecting people but to suppress them is not a roadmap to democracy. I think this is a path to disciplined democracy too.

In 60 years of civil wars, how many have died and wounded and how many lives of children destroyed? Enough is enough but the generals have already sent troops to KNU strongholds. But this fighting is not for sake of the generals! it’s for the sake of fighting itself. You see Burma has produced heroes all along its history. At least hero production must keep going or the history will blame the junta for failing so!