Tweet
Leading article: A human tragedy, but good may come of it
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
The official death toll from the cyclone that smashed through western
Burma at the weekend was last night put at more than 10,000. Road and
rail links, not good at the best of times, have been disrupted or
destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of people are in desperate need of
shelter and clean water. Last night - two full days after the disaster
- the Burmese foreign minister went on television to say that the
government was prepared to accept international help.
That it was the foreign minister, with the prime minister beside him,
who eventually announced that foreign aid would be accepted may
suggest a tussle between the forces in Burma that look outwards, to
however limited a degree, and those who look stubbornly inward. In the
administrative paralysis that followed the protests by Buddhist monks
late last year, it was the inward-looking generals who won. The
demonstrations were broken up by force; monks were deported en masse
from their monasteries to the countryside. The junta brutally
reasserted its control.
If Burma's rulers have accepted that this disaster is too big for the
country to handle on its own, and that relieving the suffering of
their stricken people should take precedence over their hermit
instincts, this is progress of a kind. The decision to open the
country a crack is still progress, even if the response is born of
fear for the regime's survival. An inadequate response to a natural
disaster can spell danger to those in charge.
There have been times, though, when some real good has come of such
aid efforts, when dire need has forced open not just the doors of
government ministries, but minds of closed societies as well. Chilly
relations between Greece and Turkey warmed almost overnight when
Greece became the first country to offer assistance to Turkey after
the catastrophic earthquakes of August 1999.
They warmed further when Turkey reciprocated after the Athens
earthquake the following month.
And in December of 1988, the Armenian earthquake prompted the then
Soviet foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, to break with 70 years
of Soviet practice and throw the stricken region open to foreign aid
agencies. The outpouring of international goodwill that followed
benefited not only the victims, but the image of the Soviet
government.
The Burmese junta might reflect that opening up also holds
dangers. The response to the Armenian earthquake helped usher in the
greater openness that contributed three years later to the Soviet
Union's collapse. A more productive conclusion would be that a closed
dictatorship is an anomaly in the modern world and that today's
reluctant opening should be a prelude to change.
©independent.co.uk
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
The official death toll from the cyclone that smashed through western
Burma at the weekend was last night put at more than 10,000. Road and
rail links, not good at the best of times, have been disrupted or
destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of people are in desperate need of
shelter and clean water. Last night - two full days after the disaster
- the Burmese foreign minister went on television to say that the
government was prepared to accept international help.
That it was the foreign minister, with the prime minister beside him,
who eventually announced that foreign aid would be accepted may
suggest a tussle between the forces in Burma that look outwards, to
however limited a degree, and those who look stubbornly inward. In the
administrative paralysis that followed the protests by Buddhist monks
late last year, it was the inward-looking generals who won. The
demonstrations were broken up by force; monks were deported en masse
from their monasteries to the countryside. The junta brutally
reasserted its control.
If Burma's rulers have accepted that this disaster is too big for the
country to handle on its own, and that relieving the suffering of
their stricken people should take precedence over their hermit
instincts, this is progress of a kind. The decision to open the
country a crack is still progress, even if the response is born of
fear for the regime's survival. An inadequate response to a natural
disaster can spell danger to those in charge.
There have been times, though, when some real good has come of such
aid efforts, when dire need has forced open not just the doors of
government ministries, but minds of closed societies as well. Chilly
relations between Greece and Turkey warmed almost overnight when
Greece became the first country to offer assistance to Turkey after
the catastrophic earthquakes of August 1999.
They warmed further when Turkey reciprocated after the Athens
earthquake the following month.
And in December of 1988, the Armenian earthquake prompted the then
Soviet foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, to break with 70 years
of Soviet practice and throw the stricken region open to foreign aid
agencies. The outpouring of international goodwill that followed
benefited not only the victims, but the image of the Soviet
government.
The Burmese junta might reflect that opening up also holds
dangers. The response to the Armenian earthquake helped usher in the
greater openness that contributed three years later to the Soviet
Union's collapse. A more productive conclusion would be that a closed
dictatorship is an anomaly in the modern world and that today's
reluctant opening should be a prelude to change.
©independent.co.uk