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How To Steal A Country

By Saneitha Nagani

We Burmese, when we pray we prayed that we would be protected from calamities such asnatural disasters, forest fires, storms, tsunami; we prayed that we would be protected from evil

government, thieves, in-humans and so on. Unfortunately, for us when we are not only ruled by anillegitimate and evil government, but also ruled by a government that is comprised of thieves andinhumane military thugs we should be thankful that we still exist as a nation.

I was inspired to write this article after reading what Samantha Power wrote about Zimbabwe, HowTo Kill A Country. Like Burma was once a wealthy country in Asia, Zimbabwe was one of thesouthern African most prosperous countries. If Zimbabwe was the jewel of Africa, Burma was alsothe rice bowl of Asia. Now both of them are basket cases and begging bowls of their respectivecontinents. Sad, isnt it?

The white farmers of Zimbabwe expected the Good old Bob (thats how white farmers came to callRobert Mugabe) to keep the jewel of Africa as he has inherited from Ian Smith. U Ne Win took over state power by a military coup in 1962 making the excuse that the military Revolutionary Council

would not let the Union disintegrate. He did not make the promise that he will make the country into abasket case. He promised us a socialist heaven on earth though, always reminding us that it waswhat our independence hero and the founder of the military wanted to take the country. However, likeall those social experiment carried out by all dictators which cause immense human devastation, wedid not even get half way to that heaven.

According to Samantha Power Robert Mugabes actions which, deteriorated Zimbabwe from a breadbasket of Africa into the continents basket case, could be compiled something of a how-tomanual for the destruction of a country. Ne Wins Burmas way to socialism and Than Shwes seven-step road map to democracy do not fall that far behind Mugabes manual either. They are text bookcase on how one lunatic can brought about untold misery to millions in a short time. It reminded me of the joke that my friends and I make putting captions on the photos of Burmese andJapanese Prime Ministers in the newspapers. It goes like this; when U Maung Maung Kha, the thenPrime Minister of Burma met Tanaka, the Prime Minister of Japan he was told by the Japanese PrimeMinister that give him three years he could turned Burma into the stage where Japan was then. Notwanting to be outdone by his counterpart, the Burmese Prime Minister told Tanaka that, Give methree years and Ill turn Japan back to the Stone Age. Too bad for Al Qaeda and fortunate for the restof the world, their leaders were not as much a destructionists as whom we have in Zimbabwe andBurma.

While Robert Mugabe hid behind his fast-track land reform to steal white owned farms, Ne Winssocialist regime hid behind nationalising of land in Burma and deprived the former landowners of their land and the farm workers of their right to own land they worked on for their livelihood. Mugabeand his cronies are the only people who benefited from his fast-track land reform. With the help of formerly landless peasants white owned farms were raided and taken then the peasants themselvesexpelled. In Burma, Ne Win in the name of socialism and in the name of the peasants, who were themajority of the population naively, believed that they could freely work on the nationalised land. Inthe end those land and other state-owned properties were taken by Senior General Than Shwe and hiscronies, in the name of privatisation.

If some states are being blessed by their geo-strategic location, Burma sandwiched between China inthe east and India in the west cannot say that it is the case. Hans Morgenthau said that, Politicalrealism does not require nor does not condone, indifference to political ideals and moral principles, butit requires indeed a sharp distinction between the desirable and the possible - between what is desirableeverywhere and at all times and what is possible under the concrete circumstances of time and place.Even though we might want China and India to be our good neighbours, it is only natural that theyhave to put their countries interest first.

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The thirst and hunger for energy of China and India in their drive to develop their economies withdouble digit growth will make Burma, with the military leaders who put their pockets and their well

being ahead of the country, became an ideal subject for exploitation.

India, as the largest democratic country on earth, would have wanted to help promote the democraticcause in Burma. Not possible though, its thirst for energy and Burmas gas deposit in the Bay of

Bengal and access to port facilities there proves too much to lose by being moral in her conducttowards Burma. China too has her desirable and the possible when it comes to Burma. Chinas mainconcern is its oil shipment from the Middle East and the gulf region having the need to pass through thenarrow straits of Malacca being blocked. Another concern being that if Burma falls into the influenceof the West it could easily fall into complete encirclement. That will be too much a price to pay for

being a good neighbour of Burma or a responsible global power.

Globalisation has been a game changer for free trade, open market, free flow of labour andservices in the twenty-first century. Just as colonisation and philandering have been the methods of exploitation of the weak by the strong in the name of global trade. For example, Elihu Yale, a manwho made enormous fortune in private trade could become the founder of Yale College, later to

become Yale University. It seems that wealth alone could somehow washed away the wrong doings of the past, wouldnt they?

One thing the world should never failed to do is to make sure that there is no proliferation of genesfrom either Zimbabwes Mugabe or Burmas Than Shwe; nor that the genes of these people areallowed to mutate with either Libyas Gadhafi or Syrias Assad so that the future of mankind is safe.

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