Burma

One has to be blatantly ignorant not to be disturbed by the latest developments in Burma (or Myanmar). Everybody hates the old-school types of military juntas (in fact, is there any nation in this world totally independent of the 'military industrial complex' ?). But more disturbing is perhaps the acknowledgement that everything (again) hinges with the realpolitik of economics. Yes, resource-hungry China needs its Olympic Games - and yes, EU or US interests are eyeing Burma's lucrative natural resources. It's a too familiar game.

We are all too familiar with what recently happened with struggles for democracy and independence in our region. East Timor fell prey from Indonesian Military Colonialism into the hands of Australian capital ambitions. The spring of Indonesia's Reformasi lost momentum when successive post-Suharto governments failed to come up with any new vision for a just and prosperous society. Idem-ditto with the Philippines or Cambodia. We only witnessed the reconfigurations of power and the further erosion of sovereignty of the masses. The dominant realpolitik has always been 'globalisation' - that very system that strives for efficiency of capital accummulation rather than redistribution. Globalisation does not need democracy. It needs compliance. It's a boring adage repeated over again - but it's an irony that our pseudo-democracies are endorsing the assumed compatibility between democracy and globalisation.

We just hope that all our support for 'freedom' and 'democracy' for the Burmese people cuts and resonates on a wider and deeper scale. We should regain that bright 1955-1966 consciousness we've lost along the way. We should dispose the popular globalisation mantra, and bring back the term 'neo-imperialism' to our lexicon.