Torture in Myanmar

     A report by London based Amnesty International states that the 1,400 political prisoners being detained by the military junta in Myanmar, also known as Burma, are at a high risk of torture, which is a routine practice in the military state. However, in a demonstration of the power of public opinion, and international pressure, the military junta has agreed to release political activist Suu Kyi, the leader of the opposition movement the National League for Democracy, from house arrest and to allow her to meet with members of a European Union team that will be visiting the country in January, 2001. Normally police states, like the junta running Burma, would prefer to put a good face on things, but the popularity of Suu Kyi has stripped away any vestige of popular support the regime might claim in the country, and as a result the junta has gunned down people in the streets, responding with an iron fist, much as the Chinese leadership did in the past. This type of behavior is a typical behavior of tyrants in power when they lose popular support and simply belching out a stream of propaganda isn't going to save the day. A member of the regime responded to Amnesty report, by denying the allegations, and stating that 'we are Buddhists...we have love and kindness.' This is a fine example of how, interestingly enough, no one wants to look evil, even when they are doing evil, and this is the real source of the drive such regimes have to concoct propaganda.

     The example of Suu Kyi who has managed to defy the authority of a brutal military dictatorship and stay alive is a not only a demonstration of bravery but also an indication of shrewdness on her part. While other people have found themselves in an early grave in Myanmar, she has been able to walk a kind of tight rope, playing off the fear of international public opinion in the junta with their obvious desire to get rid of her, or at the very least lock her up where she won't be able to give any more of those speeches. This is an illustration of the fact that even tyrants cannot hold onto power in their own strength, and that everything that happens on the planet can only happen if it receives consent, because, really, in the end, consent is power. While the junta continues to employ torture as a means of instilling fear and suppressing resistance, they wouldn't want to attempt the same stunt against Suu Kyi, at least, not with everyone watching. The function of propaganda, even the meagre and futile attempts at concocting propaganda by a regime like the one in Burma, is to make even something downright disgusting look good, and it would be pretty hard to look good if one were to torture someone while the whole world was watching. This would do away with whatever meagre amount of credibility the regime might still have.

The current military junta in Myanmar seized power in 1988. They succeeded in crushing a resistance movement that had been fighting military rule in the country for decades, and since that time the members of the junta have become extremely wealthy, and , understandably, don't feel particularly fond of the idea of democracy returning the country, depriving them of the right to milk the place like their personal cash cow. The military made a pretence of supporting democracy, until the embarrassing fiasco of having Suu Kyi win the elections in 1990, and since then they have been brutally suppressing the opposition movement in the country.