Comments on: Burma history: “Tragedy in the Golden Land” http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2007/05/27/burma-history-tragedy-in-the-golden-land/ New perspectives on mainland Southeast Asia Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:28:26 +1100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Jon Fernquest http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2007/05/27/burma-history-tragedy-in-the-golden-land/comment-page-1/#comment-92885 Jon Fernquest Tue, 29 May 2007 10:33:47 +0000 http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2007/05/27/burma-history-tragedy-in-the-golden-land/#comment-92885 "...it's hard to imagine from the outside, but inside there is a great poverty, not just an economic poverty, but of ideas and imagination because of the way in which two generations of people have been shut off. And I think that until that isolation starts to fall away, until Burma is more connected to the outside world, we're not going to have easy solutions to the many different problems of governance and economic problems that you have in the country today." And there's no substitute for de-isolation, for getting "more connected to the outside world." It's not like Burma can wait another 20 years and then play catchup, do 20 years of development in 5. The powers that be in Burma are bad, very bad, but the way to change that is not further or continued isolation, economic sanctions or boycotts. This hasn't worked, so naturally new solutions have to be searched for, rather than repeating the old, over and over again, ad nauseam. China and Singapore are the little oxygen tubes that keep the severely malnourished regime breathing, so any action short of simply ignoring the regime and carrying on business and educational exchange with its people in spite of it, are probably not going to be effective. Meanwhile, while all the intellectuals and activists are debating issues and taking heroic stances, people are dieing from easily preventable causes (government hospitals can't even do the most basic medical tests) or leading less full lives than they could, if Burma was open to the world and achieved some level of globalisation, for Burma has to be the most unglobalised place in Asia, if not the world. The place that proves that at least some globalisation is a good thing. The current approach is just dysfunctional, unbearable, and depressing. “…it’s hard to imagine from the outside, but inside there is a great poverty, not just an economic poverty, but of ideas and imagination because of the way in which two generations of people have been shut off. And I think that until that isolation starts to fall away, until Burma is more connected to the outside world, we’re not going to have easy solutions to the many different problems of governance and economic problems that you have in the country today.”

And there’s no substitute for de-isolation, for getting “more connected to the outside world.” It’s not like Burma can wait another 20 years and then play catchup, do 20 years of development in 5.

The powers that be in Burma are bad, very bad, but the way to change that is not further or continued isolation, economic sanctions or boycotts. This hasn’t worked, so naturally new solutions have to be searched for, rather than repeating the old, over and over again, ad nauseam. China and Singapore are the little oxygen tubes that keep the severely malnourished regime breathing, so any action short of simply ignoring the regime and carrying on business and educational exchange with its people in spite of it, are probably not going to be effective.

Meanwhile, while all the intellectuals and activists are debating issues and taking heroic stances, people are dieing from easily preventable causes (government hospitals can’t even do the most basic medical tests) or leading less full lives than they could, if Burma was open to the world and achieved some level of globalisation, for Burma has to be the most unglobalised place in Asia, if not the world. The place that proves that at least some globalisation is a good thing.

The current approach is just dysfunctional, unbearable, and depressing.

]]>