To some extent, it is true that the junta can't be faulted for
the fuel price doubling, but according to CNN today, Burma is at
the bottom in per capita spending on health care (even less than
the poorest African countries) and yet the elites are creating a
new capital city with condos for their personal use, and there's a
video showing the Burmese dictator's (Than Shwe's) daughter getting
married wearing lots of diamond jewellery. These point to the
glaring discrepency between rich and poor from over 40 years of
mismanagement by a string of military dictators. I think the
protests is a pressure-cooker phenomenon of this discrepency. The
dictatorship may have to use increasingly bloodier force with each
subsequent protest.
Coming back to the the monks protest. The general media is quick to
equate the fuel protest to Democracy. The monks and nuns in no way
indicating it so. Look at CNA way of reporting the situation.. it
is totally unbalanced and bias journalism .. they even dedicated 15
mins of their 1/2hrs news slot for it.. even invited Burmese Exile
(likely C!A supported) for interview.
I see your point, but foreign journalists and reporters are not
allowed into Burma and the regime has blatantly lied or refused to
give accurate info in the past. Hence reporting has to be based on
whatever info journalists can gather from abroad, which can be
biased since there is no official channel for more accurate news.
In the past (like the bloody clamp down in 1988 ) this has worked
for them, but nowadays so many people can take photos/videos and
send them worldwide by just a click, so the news restriction may
work against them now.
The last time Burma had a budget surplus was the year before the
military took over (in 1962). Burma has abundant natural resources,
hardworking people, and there's potential for tourism, mining and
other industries. There is no reason for it to lag so far behind
other ASEAN nations.
The US and UK can't do much because they don't have much direct
trade with Burma so the US is restricting travel visas of the
Burmese elite, which is not going to hurt much (frankly, if Burma
supplies 20% of the world's fuel, we might see carrier battle
groups in the Andaman Sea right now). As I see it, China and India,
Burma's biggest trading partners, should say something to the
dictators. Even though China has been brutal in handling
demonstrators, I believe the economic conditions in Burma are much
worse than in China, with wages at under S$1 a day. China wants its
immediate neighbours to be stable, this situation could lead to a
bloody suppression and then foreign intervention of some sort,
which is not good for China's interests as well.
