IS THE US AND WESTERN MEDIA PART TO BLAME FOR THE MESS IN MYANMAR?
May 14th 2008 10:04
MediaBlab has been blabbing over the last few days that western media has played a role in exacerbating the mess in Myanmar following the cyclone devastation.
This is not in any way to suggest sympathy for the pariah nation’s mad military, but MediaBlab, having lived and worked in Yangon, understands that politicising the news broadcast of the cyclone's devastation from the very start simply pushed the junta to further withdraw behind its bamboo curtain and pull the shutters down.
Contrast the coverage of the Myanmar cyclone from the outset with coverage of the Chinese earthquake – no major media referred to recent Tibetan Olympic torch demonstrations or human rights abuses allegations during the coverage, yet the coverage of Myanmar was cluttered with references from day one to the September Saffron uprising and its brutal suppression from day one.
Perhaps the most insightful comment of late, was published in yesterday’s Straits Times which said:
Any hopes of a 'disaster diplomacy' breakthrough in the antagonistic US-Burma relationship may have been banished in a few short minutes on May 5, when US First Lady Laura Bush lashed out at Burma's "inept" generals for failing to adequately warn people in the Irrawaddy delta region of the approaching Cyclone Nargis.
The timing of Bush's remark was unfortunate. It could well be that the shattered communities of the Irrawaddy delta are paying the price.
"Disaster diplomacy" is a term coined by the media after the Bam earthquake in Iran in 2003, which killed close to 30,000 people. Iran, which had an antagonistic relationship with the US, opened its doors to American aid and disaster relief experts. The US in turn relaxed some economic sanctions to allow its agencies to take part in the relief effort. The move thawed relations somewhat – at least for a while.
A few days after Bush made her remarks last week, Democrat Senator John Kerry said: "It is not clear how criticising the military junta right now helps convince them to allow urgently needed assistance for the Burmese people." Joel Charny, vice-president for policy at Refugees International, a Washington-based advocacy group, was quoted as saying in the Los Angeles Times: "For humanitarian purpose, you have to put politics aside and say unequivocally that we want to help."
A prominent red sign near the University Avenue bungalow of Suu Kyi, who has spent 12 of the last 18 years under detention, reads: "Crush the foreign oppressors and oppose those holding negative views."
The sign itself lies crushed today, having been destroyed by the winds swirling around Cyclone Nargis' slow-moving eye as it passed over Rangoon. But the sentiment it expresses remains alive, and provides a clue to the regime's suspicion of foreigners.
Notes Burma's historian Thant Myint U, "A key reason for the government's suspicion is a long history of foreign intervention, including armed intervention in the country, not just during the colonial period but even much more recently in Burmese history, where China, the US and other countries have backed insurgencies.
"Over the last few years they have become increasingly suspicious of humanitarian aid, especially since a lot of opposition groups, especially outside the country, have used the idea of humanitarian crises in the country to raise the issue of Burma before the UN Security Council and push for some kind of intervention. Whether or not this changes will depend at least in part on how good the diplomacy is in trying to allay those suspicions."
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