OPINION

Undeserved tyranny

I disagree strongly with Eric Bahrt in his Feb 6 letter, "Just deserts", that the people of Myanmar received their just deserts with the recent coup.

Since its independence in 1948 the country has been wracked by ethnic conflict much of which went unreported.

The military retained powers under the 2008 constitution which left it unaccountable for its actions in the border regions.

Indeed, the possibility that it may have lost these powers with the landslide win of the National League for Democracy in the Nov 8 election led the military to seize power.

Who in Myanmar wants a return to the repression and absolute poverty of military rule?

There is the need for a global movement to help Burma on its road to democracy.

It is the direction that will help end the appalling human rights violations that have occurred there for so many years.

Glen Chatelier largely misses the point in his Feb 5 letter "Suu Kyi will be back".

The issue is not "politics in Asia", but the future of Myanmar in particular. Modern history shows that when a genocidal atrocity is committed with the general agreement or connivance of a whole country, that country has to live with the ignominious repercussions for at least half a century.

How will Aung San Suu Kyi's support of the Myanmar military in its savage campaign advance the cause of democracy in the country?

Since the Myanmar public at large was apparently not unhappy with mass murder of the Rohingya, it follows that Ms Suu Kyi will very likely be back partly because she publicly supported that cruel behaviour in front of the world.

Now that the army is again in the doghouse for disenfranchising the blameless public, all of Myanmar can rally to the "righteous" cause of reinstating Ms Suu Kyi.

Unfortunately, even if she is reinstated, the people will likely go down in history as a brutal nation masquerading as a civilised country.

Germany rehabilitated itself by sincere apologies and genuine attempts to make amends.

Japan was largely let off the hook for its savagery in China and elsewhere because it was subsequently punished with atomic weapons. Will even a democratic Myanmar be able to muster the moral strength to recognise its misdeeds and apologise before the world?

Given all the circumstances, it is understandable that Ms Suu Kyi was unable to publicly condemn the slaughter of the Rohingya.

However, by backing up the military she has ensured that Myanmar will remain a pariah state for the next 50 years or more. In other words, Myanmar under the military or under Ms Suu Kyi is going nowhere.

How is it that the Serum Institute in India is already producing millions of doses of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine and shipping them to customers around the world, while the designated producer of the very same vaccine in Thailand will reportedly only begin mass production in May?