Magnificent response to (Burma junta apologist) David Steinberg

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Dear Kyi May Kaung,

Thank you for your kind words. Please feel free to put my statement on
your blog.

Cheers,

Roland

> Dear Roland and Anonymous Dissident Co-Writer of Response,
>
> That was magnificently put together.
>
> I passed by SAIS in a taxi Monday morning on my way to a previous appt.,
> and saw some folks with Shan Bags on the street, whom I hope were
> demonstrating.
>
> For reference purposes, in Gottenberg in 2002, at the Burma Studies
> Conference, Steinberg invited me to co-produce a panel, then titled
> Democracy and Dialog in Burma/Myanmar, (I think the "slash Myanmar" was in
> the title).
>
> On Steinberg's side of the panel were Morton Pedersen and I don't remember
> who else, but I brought in, or attempted to bring in, Ko Aung Zaw, Ko Zaw
> Oo, and Ko Zarni and the late Chao Tsang Yawngwe was also present, as was U
> Thet Tun, former head of CSED Statistical board coming from Burma.
>
> Zarni pointed his finger "point blank" at Steinberg and accused him of
> using Georgetown Univ etc to advance his own views.
>
> Ko Aung Zaw came in a few minutes late, at which point Z. had just
> finished speaking, and S. was so angry he snatched the microphone back
> from me and did not even allow me to summarize the remarks from my side of
> the panel. He also would not allow Ko Aung Zaw to come onto the podium,
> saying to me "Enough of your people." How childish can an 80 year old
> professor be?
>
> Zarni and I even have photos that I took of the actual confrontation.
>
> Previously, FYI, Steinberg was unable to see Dr Sein Win at the office
> because PM in Exile declined to see him.
>
> From a reliable source ( a contemporary of his, not mine) Steinberg
> allegedly does not even have a doctorate, and this you can check for
> yourselves on line. I've never bothered to check as to me it seems
> apparent from his lack of knowledge and logic that he does not have a
> solid academic footing.
>
> I look forward to hearing more from you all about the actual conference
> from those who were able to attend.
>
> I am writing now to ask you for permission to post the letters on my blog.
>
> My article about Ma Thanegi's "fell flat" presentation that I wrote in
> 2002 is still on the Irrawaddy site, and my 2006 debate with Steinberg in
> Foreign Policy in Focus is also still on line, as is my BBC Hardtalk
> interview where co-interviewee was Derek Tonkin.
>
> I hope the US Government will not be taken in by these anti-sanctions and
> pro-regime views.
>
> In 2007, U Tin Maung Maung Than, who was also scheduled to speak on Monday
> at SAIS, argued (I saw the video) that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in fact never
> won the 1990 election.
>
> Now what kind of b-s is that??
>
> Kyi May Kaung.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --- On Tue, 4/12/11, Free Burma wrote:
>
> From: Free Burma
> Subject: Response to David Steinberg
> To:
>
>
> DICTATOR WATCH
> (www.dictatorwatch.org)
>
> Contact: Roland Watson,
>
> RESPONSE TO DAVID STEINBERG
>
> April 12, 2011
>
> Please forward.
>
>
> We received the following reaction from David Steinberg to our statement
> about the Washington SAIS conference. (Of note, Mr. Steinberg, and also
> Priscilla Clapp, former U.S. Charge d’Affaires to Burma, both
> subsequently
> argued at the conference that the recent “election” in Burma is a
> significant pro-democracy accomplishment.)
>
> “I do not know what fortune teller Mr. Watson has consulted to so
> characterize the nature of the conference as "pro-military," since the
> conference has not been held, any papers from it have not been
> distributed, and the participants judiciously chosen to address the topics
> under discussion--North and South Korean relations with Myanmar--the
> accepted title of that country by each of those states. The readers of
> Mr. Watson's many diatribes are no doubt aware of his consistent views
> and by now must cautiously approach what he has written with judicious
> care; they might well search for verification of his often dubious
> charges. I suggest they do so in this case.
>
> Ad hominem charges will be dealt with separately.
>
> David Steinberg
> School of Foreign Service
> Georgetown University”
>
>
> My initial response to this was with passion, and is the type of thing
> that Mr. Steinberg confuses with diatribe. (I also included a more formal
> analysis from another Burma activist, of Than Shwe’s strategy to have
> the
> election accepted and thereby bring about the end of western economic
> sanctions.)
>
>
> “I thought my reasoning was clear. This is America. We say Burma. The
> SPDC
> says Myanmar. And why aren't there any speakers from Burma's pro-democracy
> movement on the panels? For that matter, why wasn't I invited, since I
> first broke the story of North Korea's involvement in Burma's nuclear
> program.
>
> Of the many people who responded to the Dictator Watch release, only one
> other was not favorable, possibly one of your former students. My answer
> to this individual, which holds for you as well, is as follows:
>
> In case you are unaware, Burmese are dying every day at the regime's
> hands, and have been for years. Some of the people at this conference have
> done everything they can, also for years, to deflect pressure on what is
> nothing less than a gang of murderers. I could be much stronger.
>
> Maybe you don't think what is happening in Burma is that bad. Maybe you
> don't care. I do.”
>
>
> I have now decided that I should address Mr. Steinberg’s charges, and
> his
> academic position on the military regime, more formally as well.
>
> Dear Professor,
>
> If I can stand up to the dictator of Burma, I can certainly stand up to
> you.
>
> The most important issue in Burma by far is the need to save lives. The
> people of the country are being put to death by the murderous gangster and
> terrorist Than Shwe, either directly at the hands of his soldiers - as is
> now most egregious in Shan and Karen states - or indirectly through the
> lack of food and medical care that he enforces and which among other
> things has led to one of the worst rates of child mortality in the world.
> (According to Unicef, an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 children under the
> age of five die every year in the country, many due to preventable
> diseases.)
>
> I believe that we all should care about Burma, and similar situations that
> exist in the other dictatorships of the world. Of course, not everyone can
> do something about it. Most people must focus on their own survival, in
> part because they themselves are subject to political and other forms of
> dictatorship. But anyone who enjoys freedom, particularly the luxury of
> financial freedom, should be involved, certainly well-paid professors at
> prestigious universities and who are so-called experts in the field. Not
> to be involved, not to dedicate oneself to ending the murder and saving
> lives, is unethical. To act in a way that actually supports the dictators
> is despicable.
>
> There is only one conference that should ever be held on Burma: How to get
> rid of Than Shwe, to save the people of the country and to give them the
> freedom that they so truly deserve. Even a focused examination of Burma's
> nuclear cooperation with North Korea, not to mention the program's
> connections to China, Russia and even possibly Iran, should be secondary
> to this subject. If we can free Burma, the nuclear proliferation problem
> there will go away.
>
> Some people will argue that such an idealistic stance ignores political
> realities, and I suppose in a way it does. The question then becomes,
> whose realities are we talking about, and being forced to accept.
>
> In my book Freedom From Form, I asked the question why, with the top
> universities of the world graduating one class after another of highly
> intelligent and motivated young men and women, and who rise to positions
> of leadership in society's different institutions, does the world continue
> to deteriorate? The answer to this is that such men and women are
> conditioned by their teachers, and then channeled into an employment
> structure where the conditioning intensifies, such that by the time they
> obtain the leadership roles (all doubters are weaned out along the way),
> they fully accept the system's principles, including that money and power
> are everything and that all possible means to them should be pursued.
>
> The idea that money and power are everything is the core force behind
> social and environmental decline.
>
> How do I know about the embedded structure of society? I was part of it as
> well, a graduate of universities that are well regarded and also on my way
> to a position at the top of a major corporation. I could easily have
> remained a part of the incestuous framework of schools, corporations,
> media, and yes, even democratic governments. But I became a doubter as
> well, and rather that wait to be expelled, I purposefully
> de-institutionalized myself.
>
> This actually explains why activism is so difficult, even though the vast
> majority of the general public want real change. We live in an
> institutional world, and in this system only institutional voices are
> accepted. Why weren't there any Burma pro-democracy activists on the
> panels at the SAIS conference? Because they don't have institutional
> standing. Why are human rights secondary to such things as the pervasive
> Kremlin-think about the intricacies of Burma's military junta? Because the
> people of the country don't have any institutional standing.
>
> Schools of Foreign Service teach political realism, the dominant paradigm
> - with a few cultural exceptions - of all human history. This is simply
> that "might is right." In technical terms, in international affairs only
> nations have standing, and national sovereignty is supreme. It does not
> matter a single iota how the rulers of a particular country obtained
> power, or what they do once they have it. Tyrants such as Than Shwe are
> embraced fully, and as equals.
>
> Also, all nations compete, and any one nation can - and should - do
> anything to further its own interests relative to all others.
>
> Political realism is a wonderfully immoral system of selfishness.
> Surprisingly, it is taught in the universities of democratic nations, and
> pursued as policy by the governments of those nations. The reason this is
> surprising is that democracy is an idealistic system, predicated on
> reason, not power, and because of this equality and rights. But a
> democracy that fairly holds elections does not guarantee that its leaders
> will follow democratic principles. And as is evident now with the United
> States and Europe, through their responses to Burma, China, and the
> pro-democracy uprisings in Arab nations and Iran, they regularly don't.
>
> The historical system is still untouched. It remains stable. As George
> Orwell commented in 1984:
>
> "… the essential structure of society has never altered. Even after
> enormous upheavals and seemingly irrevocable changes, the same pattern
> has always reasserted itself, just as a gyroscope will always return to
> equilibrium, however far it is pushed one way or the other."
>
> This will continue to be the case until we reach the tipping point and
> refuse to accept it for even one second more, until we find a way to
> overcome power with reason, and such that it can never revert. I don't
> pretend to have all the answers to this, but I do know that democracy, and
> education - real education - are essential. It is clear that democracy
> still has a long way to evolve. And, along the way we will have to deal
> with the likes of major universities such as Johns Hopkins and Georgetown,
> to which young people aspire, and which continue to use instructors with
> amazing institutional backgrounds and who are so enamored of realism that
> they don't even recognize their bias.
>
> We will have to work with determination, and find the way. It will be
> extremely difficult, considering the financial and military power of the
> opponents that we face. As Orwell observed, we may well fail. But we have
> to try. People power - democracy - is our only option. This is the only
> conceivable way we can successfully end oppression and save the multitude
> of lives that tyrants so ruthlessly take.
>
> For Burma, as many of the people in the country now recognize, they can
> expect little help from the international community, and this will extend
> to the new U.S. envoy. International support for the Burmese people is an
> artifice: crocodile tears. As long as Chevron and Total fund Than Shwe,
> anything else that the U.S. and Europe does is rendered moot. The Burmese
> people will have to win freedom on their own.
>
>
>