Aung San Suu Kyi faked it. The army did not buy it!
Palestinian journalist Dr Ramzy Baroud says both the military and Aung San Suu Kyi have betrayed democracy in Myanmar.
He says the military coup is an unwarranted action but Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) rule was never really democratic.
Myanmar was far from being a true democracy when her party was in power.
She has done very little to bring about meaningful change since her designation as State Counsellor.
Overall she was powerless in the face of the mighty military allowing their abuse of rights in the country.
She invented a personality cult to impose herself above everyone in the NLD.
Her refusal to accept that Rohingya Muslims are citizens altogether diminishes claims she is a ‘democratic’ leader.
Writing in the New York Times Richard C. Paddock said Suu Kyi ran the NLD in similar styles to the previous military rulers.
Paddock says she imposed an imperious style and her stubbornness helped her keep control over the party.
As usual with Western analysts, they were too fast in hailing the new democratic dawn in Myanmar.
Their ignorance and lack of action against the crimes committed towards the Rohingya and other minorities is appaling.
They were only interested in the money-making machine that Myanmar is with its cheap labour in particular.
It is a country where the dollar-to-dollar investment is not seen anywhere. The margin of profit exceeds anything else they have seen globally.
Thus, Western companies along with Asean companies closed their eyes and dipped their hands in the injustice to reap a huge profit.
PROFIT THREATENED
The coup in Myanmar threatens to disrupt energy investment in the country’s oil, gas and power sectors.
It could derail billions in investment in the energy sectors. This worries Singapore, the US, Australia, Singapore, countries that ramped up energy and infrastructure investment.
The abuses and atrocities against minorities in Myanmar did not prevent them from investing heavily.
Myanmar’s biggest gas fields are offshore and heavily geared toward exports via pipelines.
Malaysia’s Petronas is the main operator in the Yetagun field.
In 2019, the authorities urges the Malaysian business community to diversify and invest in Myanmar.
They were told booming opportunities were there because of the rapidly growing economy. Then there was the Myanmarese government’s openness towards foreign investments. The prospects of making quick bucks motivated Malaysian companies to jump in the fray.
Baroud says behind the carefully choreographed and romanticised veneer of Suu Kyi’s victory, was a genocidal reality.
He calls the genocide of the Rohingya a pogrom of murder, rape and ethnic cleansing.
The genocide intensified in 2016-17 and continued unabated,
This is when many legitimate questions arose about the culpability of Myanmar’s ruling NLD party and of Suu Kyi personally.
“For Suu Kyi and her party, ethnic allegiances and realpolitik superseded any platitudes about democracy and human rights,” he writes.
She defiantly objected to international criticism and openly defended her government and military.
Baroud also calls for the dissociation of Aung San Suu Kyi from any inclusive democratic movement in Myanmar.
“The Lady of Myanmar had her opportunity but, sadly, she failed,” he writes.
Photo credit: HRW Youtube