Letters to the Editor_2004

Derek Tonkin
Guildford, Surrey, UK [Top]

Axis of Evil Designation Undesired

This letter is in response to the o­n-line news story: "Burmese Exiles Split Over War".

I strongly disagree with Richard Aung Myint, and he should think before he starts flapping his mouth.

This is the quote of what he said, "Removing dictatorship from power is the morally right thing to do," says Richard Aung Myint, a Burmese activist who has been living in America for over 30 years. "I equate the Iraqi government with the military regime in Burma. I support the war against Iraq. The o­nly thing I am upset with the current administration is that they didn't include Burma in the axis of evil."

If the US government put Burma in the axis of evil group we will be considered like Iraq people, and we will never be able to live in the US. Did he not know that this action will not hurt the Burmese government, but o­nly the exile students living in the US and abroad? Did he not know that a lot of people from Iraq in the US condemned Saddam, but they still get treated poorly by this US government.

Dana Maung [Top]

War no Answer to Tyranny

This letter is in response to two o­n-line news stories: "On The Side of Peace" and "Burmese Exiles Split Over War".

One of the alternatives to the "war o­n Iraq" which has not been exploited is the removal of supportive structures which dictatorships depend upon for their survival.

There are those who nurture a relationship with Saddam in the interests of mutual benefit. In the same way the regime in Burma is sustained, despite their imcompetency, by their relationship with governments around the world. Invading Burma to change the regime would be a futile exercise. The most likely outcome would be another regime of similar ilk.

We should always be aware that peace cannot be won by war. All we get is respite from tyranny.

Trevor Edmond [Top]

Burma: Change from Within

This is in response to your o­n-line Commentary "Economic and Social Chaos of the State" [Dec 26, 2002].

Danu Maung presents a depressing spectacle of Burma today in his impassioned article "Economic and Social Chaos of the State" [Dec 26, 2002]. Yet the comparison with the collapse of the Soviet Union might even give cause for hope.

The Soviet Union collapsed because reformist measures introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev—notably through perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness)—designed to revamp the economy and root out corruption and inefficiency, led to pressure for political reform. In August 1991 Kremlin hardliners attempted a coup against Gorbachev, but they were defeated by an alliance of reformist and democratic forces under Boris Yeltsin. In other words, the collapse of the Soviet system was engineered from within the Soviet state, just as the collapse of apartheid in South Africa was led by the verligte (enlightened) Afrikaner politician FW de Klerk, against the verkrampte (reactionary) PW Botha.

In Russia today there is clear continuity with the former Soviet regime.