Time to dismantle Myanmar?

However, the Rohingya genocide, together with the regime’s cultivation of the conditions by which it was perpetrated, has so changed the national environment that not only is federal democracy now a fantasy, it is legitimate to ask if the country should even survive.

Myanmar is a failed state. Other than the short period from 1947 to 1962, it has always been ruled by foreign conquerors. These extend from the historical Burman empires, which invaded the ethnic nationality homelands and also Thailand, to the British, and then to the modern-day Burman dictators. If a nation implies not only a territory, but also the self-identification, and consent free of coercion, of the territory’s residents, then Myanmar is no such thing.

The current “democracy” is false, as the regime maintains absolute power; there is no rule of law and there is no letup in repression of public life.

The military rulers are all Burmans, whose behaviour is driven by a racist pathology of superiority. This is manifested in their disproportionate targeting of Myanmar’s other ethnic nationalities, which has often risen to genocidal levels.

The country’s supposed saviour, Aung San Suu Kyi, also a Burman, now wholeheartedly supports this reign of terror. She not only covers up the crimes, but for the Rohingya contributed materially to the creation of genocidal intent. Regarding her army friends, she is akin to the monkeys who see, hear and speak no evil.

She is also head of the “nationwide peace process”, although this is fraudulent as its only goal is to get the ethnic groups to surrender.

The leaders of some ethnic armies have succumbed to personal temptation and joined her charade, but most have demurred, while the Northern Alliance Burma – which includes the strongest forces – has demanded a completely different approach. Enraged by this, the Myanmar army has attacked the alliance and the civil war is now escalating.

Suu Kyi, meanwhile, is 72 – an ageing lame duck. Not only does she have no real power (other than her voice, which she refuses to use), she will soon exit the political scene. The military-backed USDP party has launched a major campaign of hate against the Rohingya and the other ethnic nationalities, to reinforce longstanding propaganda that it is the national saviour. The USDP is positioning for the 2020 election, and it will likely claim many more seats if not a majority. Suu Kyi and her party, in turn, could easily fade away, since she has blocked the cultivation of a new generation of strong, young leaders.

Finally, the international community has just stood by and watched. Its inaction constitutes complicity in Myanmar’s ongoing six decades of crimes against humanity, apparently in exchange for financial opportunities. To call it a complete sell-out, of the supposed humanitarian principles of the international order, is an understatement.

The Rohingya genocide is a wake-up call to all the ethnic nationalities. After them, they will come for you – with renewed vigour. What choice do you have? Stay and submit, or fight and make your own way? One promises eternal subjugation, but the other the longheld dream of peace and freedom. This isn’t unprecedented. It occurred with Yugoslavia and Sudan, and is currently in the early stages with Catalonia and Spain, and the Kurds and Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. The general process is for the ethnic resistance leaders to survey their peoples to get their permission and support, followed by a declaration of independence.

Army Chief Min Aung Hlaing’s greatest fear is ethnic nationality secession. It is time to make his nightmare come true!

Roland Watson 

Dictatorwatch.org