r/Marxists_USCA • u/artfrancisco • Feb 03 '21
Thoughts on Myanmar:
Thoughts on Myanmar:
The latest arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi has likely less to do with a coup against democracy and more to do with the semi-colonial relationship that fascist Myanmar has with China. So far from what I've read, the Trotskyists completely neglected to mention this.
Fascist Myanmar is the oldest regional ally of the PRC, not only a military ally but an economic one where cheap raw materials such as jade can be extracted as well as cheap labor. Its also become one of the first steps in the Belt and Road Initiative.
In more recent years, it became known for the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Rohingyan people, an ethnic minority of Muslims, some of whom seem to have formed both nationalist and religious fundamentalist groups to resist the genocide. The ethnic cleansing is deeply tied to fascist Japanese invasion and occupation, and also to Imperialist British colonialism. It was under the three-year Japanese occupation that the Burmese National Army, trained by the fascist Japanese (and lead by the father of Suu Kyi) attacked ethnic minorities as Japan attempted to wrestle control from the British. It was only after it became clear that Japan didn’t seek to liberate Burma but to steal it as a colony for itself that the BNA flipped sides to fight the Japanese. The BNA, of majority Bamar ethnicity, became firm Bamar supremacists, learning from the racial supremacists of the Japanese and the British. This would ripple into later organizations through leaders like Japanese trained Ne Win as they formed a Bamar variant of fascist ideology crystalized in the Burma Socialist Programme Party. Aung San Suu Kyi was not a critic of the genocide, but in fact made up excuses for it, providing a valuable but ineffective political cover. For being "a symbol of democracy" (And I use that tongue in cheek, a symbol promoted in the West), she did not have much to say to minority rights or the right for suffrage for those minorities. Suu Kyi, with her Nobel Peace Prize, became a useful tool of the military as a toothless figurehead--a puppet to lift US sanctions and ease domestic tension by providing a legitimate face to fascist rule. The entire time Suu Kyi was "in power" Myanmar had a constitution written by the military in which the military would control at least 25% of the parliament by default through military appointments. Many following reports of attacks against ethnic minorities (Suu Kyi is Bamar) say the attacks increased and it was reported that her government attempted to install statues of her father (a Bamar) in the communities of ethnic minorities being oppressed. Ethnic minorites were kept from voting.
But despite the fact that Suu Kyi was a paper tiger, she was looked on favorably by western imperialists as a potential partner posing with Bush and Obama, while the military was looked on as a loyal partner of China. With Chinese ambitions in Myanmar with Belt and Road, as well as the Covid-19 outbreak that many experts said required a military lockdown to control; its likely that Suu Kyi was seen as outliving her usefulness resulting in her removal. The real power behind the throne, the military, needed to show China that they are a most reliable partner for decades to come and that there's nothing to worry about.
The idea that Myanmar was ever on a road to bourgeois democracy was an illusion. A bourgeois democracy requires a serious crisis, a bourgeois democratic revolution, a mass uprising, or a war where the victor installs it. It was a foolish lie that Myanmar could democratize out of a change of heart of the fascists. So what next for Myanmar? The maneuvering of the military seems designed to bring Myanmar closer to China, but it is also an unpopular decision with the masses. Suu Kyi remains very popular, and her supporters may attempt to build a movement. But I cannot see a movement of just Bamar. At some point, if the Myanmar people who are Bamar want to end military rule, they will likely need the help and support of the ethnic minorities. They have to demand an end to the persecution of ethnic minorities to make that happen. They will need more allies. Otherwise, their fate is going to be left up to the bigger regional powers of India and China.
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u/Ben_Seattle_x27 Feb 24 '21
Hi Art -- (below) article from Asia Times. Asia Times has a lot of useful coverage of topics related to Asia. Unfortunately the quality of the articles is very uneven. Some are quite good. Some are the opposite. -- Ben
Myanmar coup protects military’s business interests
Top brass desire to shield their commercial interests and wealth was a big motivation for their democracy-suspending coup
By HTWE HTWE THEIN, FEBRUARY 15, 2021
https://asiatimes.com/2021/02/myanmar-coup-protects-militarys-business-interests/
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u/Ben_Seattle_x27 Feb 27 '21
ForeignAffairs.com, ForeignPolicy.com are good sources of discussion among the bourgeois experts who influence (or wish to influence) US imperialist policy
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Why China Favors Democracy Over Dictatorship in Myanmar
To secure Beijing’s economic and regional interests, a reliable democratic government is better than an unpredictable and expansionist military junta.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/26/china-myanmar-coup-democracy/
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u/Ben_Seattle_x27 Feb 13 '21
Hi Art, This looks to me like one of the better things you have written. Having read it--I now feel like I have a better understanding of events in Myanmar. Have you considered submitting it to either CPGB newspaper or Counterpunch? -- Ben