Not all military dictatorships are alike. Pakistan’s General Pervez Musharraf struggles between a genuine concern for the country’s economic welfare and a need to maintain executive control.  His ideas of governance are colored with his military background, but he does not ignore the economic concerns of the average citizen. Musharraf’s faults lie on the political dimension, where he has engaged in the suppression of alternative political ideologies. However, the poor, the rich, women, and all ethnicities and followers of minority religions are members of the nation in his eyes. His strategic thinking is not colored by prejudice. 

 

This is not the case in Burma, also known as Myanmar. The current military junta emphasizes the Burmese ethnicity as the identity of the country, to the exclusion of other communities. The government has even renamed cities and local areas to reflect the Burmese ethnicity. Burmese society, though consisting predominantly of ethnic Burmese, also includes significant minorities such as the Shan, the Karen, the Rakhine, and the Rohingya. In the past, the Burmese government has tortured, killed, and attempted to expel the Muslim Rohingya minority from the Arakan province.  The government has engaged in brutal treatment of the Karen tribe as well, which has been fighting for independence since 1949.  

Alongside ethnic tensions, the economic policies of the junta have been to the severe disadvantage of the general public.  Socialist policies, a lack of foreign investment, and increases in economic sanctions have led the once-prosperous Burma to become one of the poorest countries in the world. The poverty-stricken communities of Burma have suffered due to this lack of economic concern on the part of the government. With the deadly combination of ethnic and economic policies, fear exists in the region that the country will be “Balkanized” if the military dictatorship should ever fall. This fear has increased, as the most significant protests since 1988 took place this past September, now known as the “Saffron Protests.”

These protests followed an increase in the price of fuel, an intolerable burden for the already poverty-stricken population of Burma. After the military attacked a non-violent demonstration by pro-democracy activists, hundreds of monks took to the streets to protest against the government. They urged other citizens not to get involved, as the religious and moral authority of the monks made it unlikely that the military junta would engage in a violent retribution.  

Nonetheless, as the number of monks protesting swelled to 100,000, the military attacked them to stop the demonstrations. The monks were attracting more international attention than the military government could tolerate. The protests have since died down and, although there are some alternative sources inside the country that are informing the outside world, information about Burma is limited at best.  

Burma came close to democracy in 1990 when election results came out overwhelmingly in favor of political leader Aung Saan Suu Kyi. Nonetheless, the transfer of power between the military junta and Aung Saan Suu Kyi never took place. Many Asian countries have suggested that Burma could follow the example of Indonesia, where power was successfully transferred from a military dictator to a democratically elected government.  

Nonetheless, Indonesia’s democratic elections were instigated by a severe economic crisis that nearly stalled the Indonesian economy. Burma’s own economy is in dire shape, but the military junta has not yet been overwhelmed financially and politically. Until this happens, Burma will not be able to follow in the footsteps of Indonesia, unless the military leadership has a change of a heart.  
 

Bibliography

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