Sometimes people have wanted to match different regimes in terms of which is the most brutal? Which is the most repressive? Which is the most repressive?
The boys who run Burma may not get marks for brains but in all the other categories associated with running a brutal, corrupt, totalitarian state, they have to get a a big "A" for effort.
Tens of thousands of their citizens are dying and they do not seem to be doing anything except make TV promos to show fictional pictures of the military taking control of the situation. They are prepared to stop almost any aid getting into the country in case some of the inforamtion about the repression gets out.
The only time that they nearly lost control was when they have an election in the mistaken belief that the people love them so much that they will be elected to office democratically. When they lose in a landslide they ignore the election.
I would think that they were a sick joke except that they have run the country for decades and have stifled any opposition. The other reason that I do not think that they are a joke is that back in the early nineties I knew a lady who claimed to be being followed and harassed by the Burmese secret police in Sydney Australia. She was very much a naturalised Australian citizen. I was affronted but did nothing except ask someone who might know and the lady was probably being factual and not overstating the situation at all.
The Burmese secret police had at least one squad of heavies wondering around Sydney monstering Australian citizens of ethnic Burmese origin who were connected to the movement for democracy. Obviously they were doing it with the permission of New South Wales and Australian Government officials.
The boys who run Burma may not get marks for brains but in all the other categories associated with running a brutal, corrupt, totalitarian state, they have to get a a big "A" for effort.
Tens of thousands of their citizens are dying and they do not seem to be doing anything except make TV promos to show fictional pictures of the military taking control of the situation. They are prepared to stop almost any aid getting into the country in case some of the inforamtion about the repression gets out.
The only time that they nearly lost control was when they have an election in the mistaken belief that the people love them so much that they will be elected to office democratically. When they lose in a landslide they ignore the election.
I would think that they were a sick joke except that they have run the country for decades and have stifled any opposition. The other reason that I do not think that they are a joke is that back in the early nineties I knew a lady who claimed to be being followed and harassed by the Burmese secret police in Sydney Australia. She was very much a naturalised Australian citizen. I was affronted but did nothing except ask someone who might know and the lady was probably being factual and not overstating the situation at all.
The Burmese secret police had at least one squad of heavies wondering around Sydney monstering Australian citizens of ethnic Burmese origin who were connected to the movement for democracy. Obviously they were doing it with the permission of New South Wales and Australian Government officials.
