Change is hard for military regime

By Htet Win

Mizzima - Ever since I heard a recent comment from a senior minister in the ruling government, the attitude of the men-in-green has been made clearer to me.

The Transport Minister, who has a close relationship with Senior General Than Shwe, told a media congregation: "Whatever we do are good things. Even if and when we have gone wrong, we usually assume it is good. Given the aging figures within the government, we are incapable of changing our ways or to take better options. We are ready to die in this way." (JEG's:"in other words "they believe their own shsssss" - as long as they believe they are doing good there is no reasoning, and here is where we have to start working on... changing people's thinking, no more underestimating them)

All of the leading military personnel and government ministers around the Senior General concern themselves with a similar mentality. The military interprets any domestic development as politics. And all of the generals have reached a stage where they cannot reverse the hellish path of the country.

The military government's announcement that the first phase of the country's post-disaster restoration work – rescue and relief – had finished up to a certain extant, was issued at the cost of the national interest as a whole but for the benefit of the ruling elite. Since Cyclone Nargis a month ago, the junta has focused its struggle on offsetting international involvement in domestic problems, including both the natural disaster and political crisis. Bluntly put, the regime has been focusing attention on protecting itself from outside interference.

Meanwhile, the regime is trying to sell the effects of the disaster for billions of dollars in the name of resettlement and reconstruction assistance in disaster-hit areas. But any financial commitment by the international community will only be misused by the ruling generals, unless the international community is able to organize its own proper channels for aid.

However the military's third in command, General Thura Shwe Mann, contradicted the calls for relief money when he stated that the country had enough financial and material supplies to effectively tackle the effects of the disaster.

Yet, a few days after his fatuous comment, the government officially made an announcement that the country was in urgent need of more than $10 billion of international assistance for reconstruction work in the devastated areas.

Prime Minister General Thein Sein also called for external assistance free of politics. This announcement came despite the military government apparently failing to act timely and effectively on the relief of cyclone-hit areas, preoccupied as they were with assuring passage of their May 10 constitutional referendum.
Meanwhile, another Burmese military official, a retired brigadier-general and a minister who is said to be well-versed in both military and global economic affairs, criticized the way the government has responded to the international community.

"They (the government) do not know how to properly deal with the international community over domestic issues, usually coming up with no flexibility and maintaining a persistently isolationist stance in a globalized world," he commented.

A former director general with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said the cause of the general public's severe suffering from Cyclone Nargis rested with the military government's long-time failure to fundamentally uplift the country's socio-economic interests.

"The military government has, since it assumed state power about two decades ago, been unable to manage economic development measures that would raise the living standard of more than 55 million people who exist under grinding poverty and hardship," the director general remarked.

Some ordinary people interviewed agreed with the director's comments, adding that the government also seemed to fear that the general public would become lively and interested in domestic political changes if their lives became too easy.

There was yet another recent and revealing instance of how alarmingly selfish and short-sighted are the senior military personnel. A high ranking military official with the Northern Military Command said a few months before the cyclone that Burma had no significant issues to tackle in contrast to most nations of the world.

And in Kachin State's capital of Myitkyina in late last January, a military officer with the rank of major-general said, "We must keep on running our country as [ordered] by the Senior General." He was likely referring to the seven-step roadmap, which is to be followed as long as domestic political improvement is not detrimental to the interests of the governing military elite.

Lastly, a senior writer who was for several years an instructor with the Defense Services Academy in Pyin Oo Lwin, retorted, "It is sure that the high-ranking military personnel who presently lead the country do not love the country and its people."

"They know just the orders from their superiors", said the writer, now in his eighties, "to ensure that the country continues along a path desired by the generals."

Any way you look at it, recent domestic events – like the peaceful monk-led uprising that was crushed last September, the rigged referendum and the government's intentional neglect of the terrible effects of the Cyclone Nargis – have proven the military regime incapable of change and intensified the public's distrust of the military government.