The world has already expressed its disgust at the criminal actions of the military Junta in Myanmar. There are just two things that I would like to stress:
India's voice has been silent. Why? What is the vested interest that shuts our mouth, or is it that our government actually secretly approves of the actions of the "Generals"?
As an immediate neighbor to Myanmar, one would think that we would be the first to express our dismay, but nowadays many 'immediate neighbors' are complicit by their silence; take South Africa and Zambia for example, and how they have chosen to 'deal' with Zimbabwe. India is proving to be a similarly adept tightrope walker.
Our Indian Junta does not believe in principles any more. The shock of the interim success of the religiously fundamentalist BJP seems to have stripped all of the remaining ideals from todays so-called leadership. The long-term game is to remain in power and in order to do that they feel the need for support and encouragement from other morally bankrupt (but rich) democratic allies. One can see that
a certain world power is counting on inciting India to act as a bulwark against the ultimate ascendancy of the growing economic might of China. That particular power in turn unhesitatingly subverts the remaining principles of their chosen allies by the simple expedient of financing whomsoever will 'toe its line'.
Western talk of promoting democracy has proved to be cheap. Belief in the benefits of true democracy have altogether disappeared. The result is seen here as India had backed away from doing anything about Tibet, and then 'on request' did the dirty to our long-time allies the Iranians, so too now will we sell the Myanmarese peoples to the highest bidder.
Both India and
Burma (Myanmar) are ex-colonies of Great Britain! The British understood globalisation, and Realpolitik long before anyone else. They had to to be able to maintain a dominance, an empire for over two whole centuries, on which the sun never did set! At the same time the Brits have been busy writing histories of how selflessly they used their empire to educate and develop an uncivilised world. Our Indian leaders have learned too well at the feet of their former masters.
The unholy alliance of a China along with a subverted democracy, both joining in in the shenanigans of the key MNCs ensures the continuance of the military regime in Myanmar. This is my second point. The survival of the military junta is because they are tremendously rich. These riches fund the control of the army that then backs up completely the Junta's undemocratic hegemony.
The money in the case of Myanmar, comes mainly from timber, oil, gas, opium, and mining. All of the timber, oil, and mineral wealth is harvested from the vast pristine tropical wilderness by multinational corporations (MNCs) whose activity is known and approved of by the nations that host and spawn these
Money alone is God behemoths. The facts are not even denied; it is called progress, development and globalisation. Shamelessly such MNCs continue to operate without any controls, raping the lands and forests and simultaneously doing all in their power to ensure the continuance and enrichment of the 'oh so cooperative' golden-egg-laying-gooses of a Junta. The nations that spawn such monstrosities as these MNCs are the very ones that also piously speak of promoting democracy!
"The majority of investment in oil and gas was made by multinational companies from France, United States and United Kingdom in entering joint venture projects with the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE)"India and China in different ways are great supporters of today's Myanmar, and even rivals for influence there, though there is little question that China's economic influence does dominate.. India has its stake more as the key cutout and staging point for any MNC that wants to get round the 'minor sanctions' and the 'muted murmurs of disapproval' that are occasionally felt from Europe and America.
Myanmar is one nation where there is no need for any mafia. The looting and environmental destruction are legal! But MNCs prefer the anonymity of JVs and offshoring their activities through 'friendlies' like India.
It is also a little-recognised fact that the vast British empire was built on wood from Africa and Asia. In all former colonies one will find that some of the oldest surviving government departments are the FDs (Forest Departments) and that the systematic rape of third world forests was almost the first thing that the colonial British actually did to their colonies. While wood is still a very major money spinner, the future clearly lies in the oil and gas reserves. India and China in their unholy partnerships with the MNCs have their eyes and policies firmly fixed on all that gas and quite some oil reserves too.
- India's double standards and their hidden activity as proxies to 'higher' powers needs to be recognised and CONDEMNED.
- The MNCs that are actually doing the damage but who have remained faceless need to be NAMED and SHAMED.
We Indians have been witness to the insidious but definite shift in our own nation's foreign policies as it increasingly leans towards outright doing whatever the richest of nations want. The Indian activity is mediated (dare we suspect 'funded'?) by these same nations and their MNCs i.e. the very ones who are consistently exploiting Myanmar (and wherever else the opportunity to act without any controls makes the process maximally profitable). It is a sad truth that both of our leading political parties have already been 'converted' into backboneless and unprincipled supporters of "that which should not be named". While that pristine state in public speaks loudly of championing democracy, at the same time the word to the MNCs boardrooms is to quietly get on with getting the loot.
I am not at this moment much concerned about the sins of the rest of the world.
It is India's shameless tactics that have confounded me.
Folks, it's time to make a change!
Let's stand up for what's right, for a change...
India needs to get its act together NOW.
Pray for the peoples of Myanmar.
