Word: burma
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...desirability and benefits of the system seem so self-evident that the agonies often endured to bring it into being are easily forgotten. Last week upheavals in two very different countries brutally reminded the world that there is no inevitability to the progress of the democratic idea. In Burma a new military regime seized power, snuffing out the hopes of that country's population for a new dawn of political freedom after the 26-year nightmare of Ne Win's repressive dictatorship. In Haiti a cadre of sergeants took over the government from a cadre of generals who had themselves...
Other than the accidental synchronicity of their respective coups, Burma and Haiti have virtually nothing in common culturally, socially or historically. What they do share is a constellation of evil circumstances that, taken together, offer a cautionary illustration of just how hard it is for backward and impoverished societies to grope their way from national repression to political and civic liberty. Both are desperately poor: Haiti's per capita income of $393 is the lowest in the western hemisphere, while Burma's $197 makes it one of the least developed nations in the world. Both have been ruled for decades...
...balloting, and the demonstrations went on. By last week the opposition's emerging leadership appeared to be focusing on the issue of how to negotiate a transfer of power. Three leading dissidents -- former generals Aung Gyi and Tin Oo, and Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of one of Burma's great nationalist heroes and the country's newest and brightest political star -- wrote to Maung Maung formally rejecting the proposed elections. They were joined in that demand by former Prime Minister U Nu, who had been ousted from power in 1962. Later, a government election commission reportedly informed the regime...
...confrontation grew, the military seemingly remained loyal to Maung Maung and to Burma's strongman, former B.S.P.P. Chairman Ne Win, who was widely believed to be pulling strings behind the scenes. But last week some 6,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen appeared to have joined the revolt. In Rangoon graduates of the influential Defense Services Academy, mostly majors and lieutenant colonels, issued a statement urging formation of an interim government that would include the opposition. At midweek Saw Maung appealed to the opposition on national television to avoid splitting the military...
That plea was widely interpreted to mean that the government doubted the loyalty of its own troops, and its concern seemed largely justified. Of the nine regional commands in Burma, all headed by brigadier generals, about half are said to remain loyal to Ne Win. But regional command troops are locally recruited and almost certainly would not fire on their own people if ordered; nor would their junior officers. Last week a captain of one of three elite infantry divisions in Rangoon went over to the opposition, creating a new wash of speculation about the fealty of even the most...