Self evident except to self delusional fools -
from Dr Maung Zarni's Facebook -
But do you know that 1 in 3 human beings on earth live under some form of authoritarian/dictatorial regime, despite that only 5 countries did NOT hold elections in the past 15-20 years?
Forms never crystalise into essence or practice.
For those who think the military junta is preferable to the messy democratic politics, they are not really looking, seeing or understanding Burma in transition.
Here is essentially the skeleton of the regime's strategy.
it is the same junta who has learned to 1) act smarter with business interests, 2) exploit the West's desperation, 3) address own fear of China, 4) coopt and/or courrpt the dissident elites by dangling the carrot of 2015 elections, 5) stoke ethno-religious prejudices of the majority against the weakest in society with no real support from any foreign power, 6) outsource Rohingya genocide and anti-Muslim mass violence, 7) tarnish any future threats from the Buddhist Sangha, seduce and use western educated Burmese technocrat elite with no strong ideological (pro-people) core, 9) facilitate the Lady's morphing into a world class hypocrite,10) offer the armed resistance elites business and 'development' prospects, throw 'donors's crumbs' at foreign consultants in development-peace-INGO industry, and 11) finally frame every problem as part and parcel of democratization.
Naypyidaw is able to do all this, apparently, while maintaining a very firm grip on most strategic domains of the State and power: the propaganda (media), the armed gangs mistakenly referred to as the Army, the business sector, the opposition politics, international relations, the finances, the resource sector, all State institutions of any importance, the Intelligence services, the religion!
The timing and the setting for Naypyidaw to pursue this multi-pronged and multi-faceted strategy is perfect. The West is too desperate, too greed-driven, and too arrogantly ignorant.
All this sounds like one big Naypyidaw conspiracy. And it is. All powers conspire.
Ask the United States Presidents and NSA.
Dr Maung Zarni -
