Poster -- of Burmese Democracy Leader and Nobel Peace Laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, United States Campaign for Burma -- July 2006
Last year (2006) my country of origin, Burma, was number 18 on the list of Most (Worst) Failed States in the world. This year it is number 14th. Can the military junta that rules it so tightly, do nothing but make it “advance” on indicators that show how awful it is?
The topmost block of indicators in a list totaling 177 countries blares at you from a bright red alert background color. Next comes orange and then, lowest on the scale, which is the best in this case, a cool color – green.
So how does the Fund for Peace measure all this, and what does it take account of? So which are the two worst places, with the most failed states? Your guess is absolutely right and they are – Sudan and Iraq. Daily media images confirm this. But wait a minute, how do we exactly measure Sudan and Iraq against each other? It’s done by using social, economic and political indicators, and in this case it is not a statistical sleight of hand. The indicators are probably based on sample surveys or interviews.
We could ask a refugee from Sudan and one from Iraq – which of your plights was the worst, do you think? Starving and the militia in Sudan, sectarian violence and bombs going off all the time in Iraq? But we have to aggregate the impressions and rank them in order.
Here are some of the 12 indicators used to rank 177 countries: Among the social indicators –
I-1 Mounting demographic pressures – this means limited physical resources, including food, transportation etc to look after an increasing population. And/or not enough resources for people.
I-2 Massive movement of Refugees and IDPs (Internally Displaced People) -- Ah! Burma for certain has this, as do the Sudan and Iraq.
I-3 A legacy of vengeance, especially between groups.
I-4 Chronic and sustained human flight. This is very important as an indicator. It means it is not only chronic, that is, very bad and going on all the time, but also kept going by continued bad conditions, severe oppression and so on. In the Burmese case, since the SPDC now wages war on the minorities year round, no longer “resting” for the rainy season, and other oppressions have continued, the number of refugees and IDPs is increasing daily.
Famous Nobel Prize Winning economist Milton Friedman, who in the 70s, with his wife Rose, wrote the popular TV series and book Free to Choose, stated that this “voting with one’s feet” was very significant. As in Hungary after the clampdown on the revolution of 1956, people cannot stand it any more and walk out to a freer place. Burmese refugees and exiles are now everywhere, most of them in countries such as Thailand, India, China and Bangladesh, which share borders with Burma. The IDPs, estimated at one million in a country of 50m, are displaced by the SPDC’s relocation campaigns, rural exactions, forced portering etc and are tramping around within the country. Among them are child soldiers and/or orphans.
Among the economic indicators used to calculate the Failed State Index are:
I-5 Uneven economic development along group lines.
There is great economic disparity between the rich and the poor in Burma. The rich are either the army or the “pariah capitalists” or new rich, who have worked out some kind of détente with the Burmese junta.
I –6. Sharp and severe economic decline.
Among the political factors:
I-7 Criminalization and/or delegitimization of the State.
I-9 Arbitrary application of rule of law and widespread violation of Human Rights.
Sadly for Burmese, these are self-explanatory.
How do some of Burma’s neighbors in S.E. Asia do in these rankings? The second worst failed states are in “orange alert status.” They include, and we would expect this, Laos and Cambodia, but also Thailand and Vietnam, and among former communist or still communist states, Russia and Cuba.
In a failed state such as Burma, the state is not looking after its citizens as it should be, but is looking after itself.
I-10 Security apparatus or apparat is functioning as a state within a state.
Which are the world’s best states? Which country is it best to be a citizen of?
A family friend of mine, let’s call her Sann Sann, was first in Norway before her refugee journey brought her to the Unites States. Her husband says, she always talks about, “Norway, Norway.” In this case she is correct. Norway, number 177 in this table, has the least failed state, that is, the best government. Overall, the 3 Scandinavian countries are the 3 best countries to be a citizen of:
#177 Norway
#176 Finland
#175 Sweden.
(#174 is Ireland, #173 is Switzerland, where allegedly, even the former dictator of Burma, the late Gen. Ne Win, kept his Swiss bank account).
It is probably not an accident that The Democratic Voice of Burma (Radio) is based in Oslo, Norway.
Nor that Carl Sandburg’s famous poem of 1942, “The Man with the Broken Fingers” is about a Norwegian freedom fighter who had not only all his fingers but his entire body broken and died as a result of torture during the Nazi Occupation.
The Gestapo wit and craft had an aim.
They wanted it known in Norway the Gestapo can be terrible.
They wanted a wide whispering of fear.
Of how the Nazis handle those who won’t talk or tell names.
“We give you one more chance to co-operate.”
Yet he had no names for them.
His locked tongue, his Norwegian will pitted against Nazi will,
His pride and faith in a free man’s way.
His welcoming death rather than do what they wanted ---
I translated this poem into Burmese and broadcast it on my program, Poems of Those who Love Their Country, in 1997.
The countries with the best governments, saving the best for last, are thus Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Norway. Their citizens are all well known for their independent mindedness.
For the actual tables, please see
http://www.fundforpeace.org/web/indexAlso,
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/Kyi May Kaung was born in Burma, and has 4 degrees, including a Masters and a Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. Her doctoral dissertation is about the terrible affects of centralization in Burma and other countries. She was a Sr. Research Analyst at Radio Free Asia and The Burma Fund from 1996-2004. She lived in Burma till the early 1980s.
My Salon in March 2007, "Who am I?" Painting "Lady Scorpion" and photo copyright Kyi May Kaung.
