Burma: The Sick Man of Asia By Zaw Win Naing Vicky Bowman, former United Kingdom ambassador to cle

in Irrawaddy comparing Burma to a patient. It was apt t Burma, with a stunted growth and dysfunctional economy, oms of a sick man. Since she is a trained pathologist she s the disease. Burma wrote in an arti for her to mention tha is a person with sympt should know what cause

I am not a pathologist but as a Burmese I know how sick Burma is and what kind o f illness it is suffering from. I may be wrong but since Burmas illness is not ju st the suffering from a stunted growth and dysfunctional economy, she could have contracted a virus, which infects a states defence system analogous to a patient suffering from the HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Like the patient with HIV Burma may develop into a state of full-blown AIDS (Acquire Immune Deficiency Sy ndrome. Thus becomes the 24th province of China. As Hans Morgenthau said in his book Politics Among Nations, in matters political we can have opinions but no truths. How ill Burma is, I will leave it for the rea ders to draw their own conclusion. The military, any military in a state system, is one of the pillars of nation bu ilding. The main responsibility of the military is to protect the national inter ests - its sovereignty, its territorial integrity and to defend the country and its people against foreign aggression. Even though my analogy of the military to a pillar might gave the readers a false image, as the pillar being something stro ng and sturdy, ready to withstand any onslaughts. The trouble with such an analo gy is that since the aftermath of U Ne Wins coup in 1962 and the socialist govern ment that followed, not even a pillar made out of concrete can represent that im age. Cement is scarce in the market and it fetches much, much more in the black marke t. Sacks of cement obtained from government supplies went walkabout ending up in m arket. Most civil engineers in the government corporations siphoned them off an d in their projects they rarely use the correct amount of cement in the concrete mix for the pillars to meet their required standard of strength. If is were mad e out of wood logs then rest assured that termites will ate it up in no time. We have termites in every state enterprise. For example, the public dubbed the acr onym PPSC, a corporation under the ministry of energy (formerly Ministry for Indus tries II) as Peoples Petroleum Stealing Corporation. I cannot recall what it really stands for. The reason why I say that Burma is a sick man of ASEAN suffering from AIDS is th at Burma has no military, as a normal state organ, to either defend or protect h erself from foreign incursions. When the military, one of the pillars in state b uilding, is no longer able to protect or defend the vital interests of its count ry then it invites foreign invasion. It may seem an exaggeration in Chinas case s ince the PLA (peoples Liberation Army) did not have to fire a shot to put the mil itary and our country under its servitude. Instead the military in Burma has bec omes the enemy that wages war on its own people thus analogous to a patient whos e the immune system has broken down. Unlike Her Excellency Bowman, not being a trained pathologist, I cannot look at etiology (what causes a disease); pathogenesis (how it does it); morphologic cha nges to the structure of the cells, tissues and organs; and clinical significanc e, what the effect is of those changes, or the symptoms of the disease as accura tely as she has done. However, what I can say about Burmas illness is that becaus e of the breakdown of one of the state organs, like a patient suffering from AID S, she has also become demented. The virus infected on the brain. Like a demented brain the courts system, the religious affairs department, foreign affairs and o

ther government departments that are vital to the proper functioning of a state no longer exists. The military itself, like a cancer, spreads through almost all government departments and affected people from all walks of life. As for the breakdown of the defence system, the military total reliance on China for protecting their own skin and their immediate families has made Burma short of becoming a serf of China. Like a patient suffering from AIDS she cannot and does not fit in well in the community of states. When the State Law and Order Co uncil (SLORC) took over power from the U Ne Wins socialist government by staging a mock coup in 1988 many countries with democratic and humanitarian values shunn ed Burma. In my opinion the country that introduced the disease was Thailand wit h Chovalit Yongchaiyuths visit. The diplomatic isolation of Burma was further det eriorated by China with many of her delegations visiting Burma frequently and qu ite often with substantive concessions until the military regime became totally reliant on China for its survival. When the military, with its proud history of repelling countless number of Chine se incursions with the use of its proxy - the Burma Communist Party (BCP) during Chinas dichotomous party-to-party and state-to-state foreign policy until the la te 1980s, now becomes a spent force; neither can nor willing to protect or defen d its own interests. Like a patient with AIDS, in spite of the growth in size, t he military has lost its strength. In an editorial in Irrawaddy in May, Aung Zaw clearly outlined the situation of Burma becoming a satellite of China when he w rote, There is no doubt that the Chinese invasion of Burma is visible in the grow ing numbers of Chinese migrants and businessmen in Burmas second largest city, Ma ndalay, as well as in Shan and Kachin States where they have opened shops and bu sinesses and regularly buy land. One cannot be sure whether because of the illness the policy makers in the milit ary regime are demented or they are those who fit the profiles of Professor Robe rt Hares PCLR test for psychopaths I ma of the opinion that they have not done anyt hing good for the country and the people. When most countries in the world are l ooking at food production as strategic like Chinas strategic pork reserve for instanc e, can prevent any disruption with the release of the countrys stock of frozen po rk from its icy warehouses around the country. Chinese purchase of land in Burma , though small in scale at the moment, could become a big problem for the people of Burma in the near future. Ne Win had made, once a rich country in Asia - a rice bowl of Asia -to the United Nations Least Development Country (LDC), Than Shwes military regime has upstaged his former boss by turning Burma into a begging bowl of Asia and a satellite of C hina. The talking points prepared for Thein Seins meeting with Chinese Premier We Jiabao leaked and posted on the Internet is my case in point. Burmas international standing prior to U Ne Wins military takeover in 1962 has dec lined from a global citizen to a pariah. The leaders of the military regime can on ly visit countries with a similar status of social pariah, like Sri Lanka, North K orea and morally bankrupt country like India, China and Singapore. Just like a pat ient infected with HIV has other infections like oral thrush and herpes, the mil itary regime is also infected with similar social infections thereby being shunned and mistrusted. On the whole, like the writer Emma Larkin said in the title of her book in Burma, Everything is Broken. To illustrate the matter further I woul d like to conclude my piece with a joke that portrays the military regime as a co ndom. The condom allows inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks and gives us a sense of security while were actually being screwed! If the military regime had been wiser then they should not be act like a condom bu t rather be the ones who use it to protect themselves from HIV infection. In th at case, the former British Ambassador to Burma might not see our country as a p

atient.

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