18 May 2008
Burma should be suspended from Asean
With such callous disregard for the humantarian crisis following cyclone Nargis, are the Burmese generals committing a crime against humanity? Since Asean has no influence on them anyway, we should signal our moral outrage and suspend them from the organisation. Full essay.
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4 comments:
They should be suspended but it will never happen. Who has the balls to actually do something like that?
Burma should be suspended, I agree. But I doubt if this move will hurt Burma (under dictatorship) more than Asean members, who stand to lose revenues from trade with Burma.
The Burmese junta can insulate themselves from any embargo or sanctions. It would be unlikely to overthrow this regime internally with unarmed civilians or monks as events have shown. Burma doesn't have oil to warrant "regime change" by any foreign power. There is also the issue of what happens if the military is removed - it will likely break up into warring ethnic groups (some are drug funded).
Aren't Singapore's leaders then indirectly responsible for these "crimes against humanity" too. While leaders of other democracies speak out in much the same way you are doing, Singapore's leaders stay pretty much silent. Their silence speaks volumes. Is their silence driven by a similar Mugabe-esque notion of noninterference (LKY also said he may also have to send in the army if our own elections don't go as planned) or is their silence driven by pure greed, given Singapore's cosy economic relationship with these drug-smuggling generals? Singapore's leaders should teach the junta about less deadly legal fig leafs than sham elections...the defamation suit being Singapore's most effective legal fig leaf. I am very disappointed with Singapore, and like the rest of ASEAN members, I feel sad and embarrassed.
You might want to read this for balance:
http://chinamatters.blogspot.com/
China Hand never pulls his/her punches, and I believe this is a cogent summary of the situation. Read widely first.
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