DICTATOR WATCH
(www.dictatorwatch.org)

Contact: Roland Watson, roland@dictatorwatch.org

THE AGE OF AUNG SAN SUU KYI

December 11, 2012

Please forward and post.

Burma is now enduring what in the future will be called, "The Age of Aung San Suu Kyi." To be precise, this is its Second Phase. The first started with her return to the country in 1988 and her participation in the pro-democracy movement. The second began in 2011 with her decision to abandon the movement and join the military regime, in exchange for whatever change she thought she could beg from the generals.

As the last remark implies, and I am not the first person to say this, virtually everything significant that Suu Kyi has done - in both phases - has been wrong. This is true if you believe, as I do, that the people of Burma deserve real freedom and democracy, including the freedom to speak to anyone and about anything, and to be free of poverty and want. I am not one of the racists, in the West but also surprisingly inside Burma itself - and I suspect this includes Suu Kyi - who think that the people should not have real freedom. The people of the Americas, Europe, Japan, Australia - they all deserve real freedom, but for some reason not the people of Burma, or for that matter - as the actor Jackie Chan said in Hong Kong in 2009 - China. (He said: "We Chinese need to be controlled.")

In Phase One Suu Kyi refused to call upon rank and file soldiers in the Burma Army to rise up when the regime stole the 1990 election, even though the soldiers overwhelmingly supported her National League for Democracy. She further refused in the years following this, either openly or clandestinely, to call for new demonstrations. Amazingly - for a "pro-democracy leader" - she is opposed to protests, and even activism in general. She also did not make any effort to contact and work with the backbone of the pro-democracy movement, the ethnic and student resistance armies, which were willing to fight the dictatorship. And lastly, she stuck to the ridiculous position that you can negotiate with a gang of serial killers.

Now, in Phase Two, she has increased her mistakes exponentially. She renounced the 1990 election result and united with the regime, thereby legitimizing both its top officials and the majority USDP members in Parliament, all of whom should be tried and jailed for their past and present crimes. To do this, she also swore an oath to uphold the 2008 Constitution, under which Burma can never become democratic. More sinisterly, she validated the Burma Army's crimes against humanity against the Kachin, and other ethnic nationalities, by suggesting that the Army was not to blame for its own scorched-earth offensives against them. Then, astonishingly, she decided to help cover up the ongoing genocide of the Rohingya. Now, she is the lead apologist in the whitewashing of the merciless crackdown by regime police of the Letpadaung protesters, the brutality of which included even the use of chemical weapons - reportedly phosphorus bombs.

As if all of this were not enough, she further supports the regime's international corporate cronies, saying that the "contracts" they signed with the generals, and which were used to justify the theft of huge acreage of privately owned land, should be respected. This is simply unbelievable. She is backing the thieves! Every single action that the generals have taken since 1990 has no standing under law. The contracts they signed, and which she so prizes, have no force and should be repudiated.

Suu Kyi has said that everything I have just described is due to the lack of the rule of law. Hogwash! It is due to widespread acceptance of the regime's all-pervasive criminality, including by her. If this is all that she has to say, she is either an idiot, or she thinks the people of Burma are idiots.

I have to ask: Doesn't she have any empathy? Does she feel nothing for the thousands and thousands of people who have been raped, tortured, and killed? Hasn't she seen the photos? Does she really not want it to end?

Is there anything that can lead her to care?

(Note: Please see the last page of this statement. It is a listing of 55 selected headlines from the last three months, in the now 220 pages of links, beginning in April 2011, that is Dictator Watch's Burma Death Watch blog. Suu Kyi refuses to protest, much less acknowledge, these atrocities. They are apparently of no concern to her at all.)

Aung San Suu Kyi is obstructing freedom and democracy for Burma, more so even than the generals of the Tatmadaw. She is the main problem. There must be pressure to oust the generals - this is the only way that Burma will ever be free - but she opposes pressure.

Specifically, she opposes popular protest and revolution. To give an analogy, there is a movie called The Cooler, in which a Las Vegas casino employed a sad-sack loser to drain the energy away from gamblers who were winning at the tables. He would sidle up to a table, and through his negative aura reverse the winner's luck.

Suu Kyi is Burma's cooler. Following Letpadaung, protest in the country should have redoubled, and also underground agitation and sabotage. However, her commission on the crackdown is designed to stop this in its tracks. She is patronizing the people, telling them not to worry - that it is only an issue of "transparency." Unfortunately, many people are so brainwashed that they believe her. They have been tamed.

She may or may not realize it, but she is now working directly for Senior General Than Shwe.

For people who are not brainwashed, be free of your fear of criticizing her! She is selling out your country and your future. Don't let it happen. Raise your voice!

I would advise Suu Kyi to invest her financial Nobel Peace Prize, which she was finally able to pick up - with twenty years of compounded interest it should now be in the millions - in the new corporate exploitation projects. This would be in keeping with her real attitudes. Indeed, with her wealth she can afford a lot more than her new wardrobe. I wouldn't be surprised if she has been offered some wonderful deals.

I exhort the people of Burma to reject Suu Kyi's influence and to expand their protests. Having said that, though, her domianance is so great that it is unlikely Burma can ever be freed, during her Age. The only solution therefore is to keep her reign as Queen of Burma (sorry, Kyaing Kyaing) as short as possible. No country should be sacrificed for one person's vanity and ego.

No one should even think about voting for her again. While her failings during Phase One might have been due to naivete and incompetence, what she is doing now is not only unforgivable, it's criminal.

SAMPLE HEADLINES OF REGIME SAVAGERY IN LAST THREE MONTHS

Regime dry-season offensive now fully underway; Kachin man tortured
Government troop uses military helicopters to fight the KIA
Convoy shooting spree leaves 1 dead, 3 injured in Kachin state
Breaking News: Five Internally Displaced Rohingyas Shot in Sittwe (Akyab)
Kachin refugee camp burned down by Burma Army
Police use chemical weapons to disperse Lapadaungtaung copper mine protest, say locals
80 injured in Monywa crackdown
Burma Army continues to use heavy artillery
New clash with the SSA-S; 33 clashes since their ceasefire was signed
Army killed one, wounded three in Buthidaung
It's only training, but Government jet fighters terrify Karen villagers
KNU claims Burma Army forcible recruiting Karen villagers for militia
Burma Army soldier murders a Kachin villager
Government uses prisoners to clear mines
Burma Army torture leaves one man dead in Pa'an
Breaking News, Rohingya Village burning on the day Obama`s Myanmar Visit
More than 40 battles after Shwe Li discussion
Burma Army attacks a village in Southern Shan State
Ethnic soldier arrested and killed by government troops
Opium Wars: More fighting in Northern Shan State
Group says death toll in Arakan higher than gov't figures
Fierce battle takes place on Arakan-Bangladesh border
Burma army sends scores of reinforcements to Kachin State
Burma Army attacked a village, killed the village head and raped and killed a teacher
Latest Images of Rohingyas dead bodies in Sittwe, Arakan, Burma
Two new clashes with the SSA-S. Burma Army soldiers shoot two Shan women.
Burma army shelling injures 3 boys in Kachin state
Corpses Found Floating In The Water In Maungdaw South
Govt Troops Kill Two, Arrest 48 Accused of Belonging to Ceasefire Group
Hundreds killed, Thousands of Rohingya floating on the sea and facing starvation.
Yaan-Byay Township's Kaman Muslims' Block are being set fire now
Kyaukpyu's Muslim Quarter Razed to the Ground
Two new battles; widespread abuse of Kachin villagers by Burma Army troops
Security Forces Kill An Elderly Man And Arrest Ten People In Maungdaw South
Entire population of Kachin village flees after Burma army moves in
Kachin girl severely beaten by regime soldier; villagers detained and abused.
Burma army shoots child inside Chinese refugee camp
6 Kachin people killed in Burma Army shelling
Photos of some of the Kachin victims. Warning - they are strong.
Burma Army shelling kills three Kachin civilians in Hpakant
Burma Army continues to resupply for its offensive against the Kachin
Breaking News: Two Rohingyas Slaughtered in Kyauktaw
Burma Army shells Kachin villages. Five new battles.
Abducted Kachin Woman was Murdered, Says Lawyer
Rohingyas daily being killed with government support
Burmese man tortured to death in police custody, says family
DKBA officer shoots villager
Two Killed as Police Fire on Crowd in Pathein
Student rebel dies during Kachin battle
Rohingya Woman severely tortured by army and Natala villagers in Maungdaw
Burma Army shells Hpakant suburb; kills a school girl
KIO-Burma army clashes erupt along rail line in Southern Kachin state
Kachin man feared dead after Burma army throws him in mine pit
KIA Claims Howitzer Mortar Shelling on Villages
Kachin refugee shot dead by government army: report