It’s easy to condemn Burma’s military regime for blocking life-saving international aid in the wake of Cyclone Nargis. But few stop to ask why the generals behave this way, instead simply branding them ‘xenophobic’, ‘irrational’, or ‘inhuman’. The truth is that they are afraid of foreign intervention because Burma has been plagued by it since 1948, when Britain left it precipitately teetering on the brink of civil war.
During the Cold War, a Chinese nationalist army occupied part of Burma, trading opium with America and Thailand in exchange for guns to kill communists, bringing about the collapse of Burmese democracy and the advent of military rule. The country was ravaged by communist and ethnic insurgencies, backed by China and Thailand respectively.
After the Cold War, the West took over, bashing the regime for failing to democratise. While other nations with equally nasty regimes were coddled, the West’s lack of strategic or economic interest in the feeble state of Burma made it an ideal dog to kick – one that cannot bite back.
Sanctions, which have carefully protected Western oil firms, have done absolutely nothing to budge the regime, but they satisfy pious NGOs and make us feel morally superior. Incredibly, the West has continued to kick the Burmese dog after Cyclone Nargis, attaching conditions to aid and extracting moral and political capital from Burma’s wretched people.
But sanctions, and the extreme and selective politicisation of aid and human rights, have also helped create the very ‘paranoia’ that now blocks effective relief efforts, by convincing the regime – which genuinely believes it is the only thing holding the country together – that Western powers are ruthless imperialists bent on destabilising the country.
Western intervention has also encouraged the extraordinarily fragmented Burmese opposition to yearn for external rescue rather than uniting to overthrow the regime. Cyclone Nargis struck just before a scheduled referendum on a new constitution.
It is hardly any wonder that the regime views Western aid agencies as Trojan horses. Threats of armed humanitarian intervention and prosecution for ‘crimes against humanity’ only make things worse.
The West – and, sadly, Burma’s people – are reaping what the West has sown. Ironically, events have vindicated the oft-criticised, less confrontational approach of Burma’s partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations: Burma has agreed to receive aid channeled through ASEAN because it will not be politicised.
If Nargis really is, as is claimed, worse than the Asian tsunami, which attracted $7bn in aid, then current Western pledges to Burma – a measly $93m – are an insult that bashing the junta has distracted attention from. A donors’ conference will be held on 25 May: the West must put its money where its mouth has been, and supply aid to Burma’s people via ASEAN without conditions.
