Myanmar Government Imposes Curfews

What Does This Mean?

First of all, I am sure that anyone would have heard of the recent riots and chaos in Myanmar. It started with the increase in fuel prices by 100% overnight. To add to this, the hard-line military rulers are enjoying wealth when most of the country's population is in poverty. The people there are simply fed up with military rule so now they want democracy instead of communism like most other countries. Basically, now monks and some people are taking part in anti-government protests because they have lost faith in the government.

This Affects Everyone Here

It is obvious that this affects everyone. This tarnishes the image of South-East Asia and people might even be afraid to come into the whole region even though the riots and protests are only in Myanmar and not in any other country like Singapore. As you might have guessed, this will cause a decrease in our earnings from the tourism industry causing the economy to go down.

However, inarguably the worst affected country is undoubtedly none other than China. China needs to polish its international image before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Now if all this chaos in Myanmar does not come to a stop, very few people will come to the Olympics. This is because China is Myanmar's top economic and diplomatic supporter. This might explain why China first adopted a policy of non-interference at first towards Myanmar's woes and now seems to be very concerned with the issues.

What is Being Done?

I am particularly disappointed with ASEAN's stand on the issue here. I do understand that their policy is non-interference. However, to simply put it, they are just saying,"We are deeply troubled" "We are deeply concerned over Myanmar's political instability- after that they do not do anything to conuter the actual problem. They are merely stating the obvious.

I really do not understand what function ASEAN is supposed to serve- I have never seen them trying to help one another counter problems such as water shortage in Singapore to political instability in Myanmar. Is ASEAN just a 'club' to imitate the UN?

Is this Right Or Wrong?

First of all, this really shouldn't be happening. The people shouldn't be afraid of their government, the government should be afraid of their people. In this case, Myanmar's government has taken advantage of their people's 'flexibilty' or rather tolerance. in fact, I consider Myanmar's ruling party to be totalitarian. I mean imagine them enjoying wealth like mad when their own country suffers and when they run out of money to splurge on-they simply increase the price by 100%. Conditions are so bad that one is considered wealthy if he/she can afford to take the bus.

Moreover, the government is only making things worse by using violence to to counter the protests. They should realise that the country even though it is opening up to new changes and such, it still remains largely conservative and so people there remain deeply attached to Buddhism.

Conclusion

All in all, I think that Myanmar is a literally a time bomb waiting to explode. It can be comparable to France in a way, There were a lot of small French Revolutions before the actual big revolution took place where they executed the aristocrats. This revoltuion is just one of the small ones. In the future, there will be even more turmoil in the country. However, as the saying goes -Great Revolutions Are Written In Blood Not Ink--> one of the rare cases where the sword is mightier than the pen...