Miles Kington: Repressive regimes thrive on international outcry

There was a piece in The Inde-pendent the other day urging Gordon Brown to speak out on Burma. The writer was a man who knew Burma well, and he wanted Brown to join the international condemnation of Burma's military dictatorship and urge them to change their cruel ways.

Alas, I have been keeping my eyes on Gordon Brown's public utterances since then, and he has still said nothing about Burma, which leads me to suspect that the power of the press is not what it was. So in the absence of any lead from our Gordon, I have decided to restore the power of the press and speak out on Burma myself today.

I spent two months in Burma back in 1987, working for the BBC, which makes me an expert on the place compared to most people, certainly enough of an expert to tell you one thing: Gordon Brown is right not to join the international condemnation of Burma's military regime. For as long as I can remember, people have been joining in the international outcry against Burma's repressive regime, and a fat lot of good it has done. Not once has the regime crumpled into tears and said, "Yes, you're right! We have been horrible! We shall be nice and liberal from now on..."

What people don't realise is that repressive regimes LOVE choruses of hatred. It makes them feel wanted and validated. Saddam Hussein loved being hated. The apartheid regime felt justified by it. So did Pinochet and Kissinger. Today, Robert Mugabe thrives on it...

So today I want to speak up in favour of the military regime in Burma. I'd like to point out for a start that all military dictatorships, including Burma's, are a force for peace. They hardly ever declare war on their neighbours. They know they cannot afford to. The generals in charge usually have the sense to realise that their military strength is for show only, as General Galtieri bitterly found out when he invaded the Falkland Islands and ran up against someone who had a proper army, not a collection of unwilling conscripts. The only people a military regime can safely take on is its own citizens, as Saddam Hussein realised when he went for the Kurds and Marsh Arabs (and as he sadly forgot when he went for Iran and Kuwait).

Critics of the Burmese military regime also complain that they have dealt mercilessly with their own people, destroying villages, relocating people forcefully, using them as slave labour, torturing, raping and killing them, and trampling on a sweet-natured people. It is true, but it is also nonsense. The Burmese have never been sweet-natured. They have always slaughtered and brutalised each other. When the British first arrived to annex the Burmese, they were horrified by the cruelty of a society in which each new Burmese emperor killed his 20 nearest relatives on accession to the throne.

Don't forget that Burma's neighbours, the Thais, have always feared and loathed the Burmese because historically they have always tried to over-run Thailand with fire and sword. What a relief for the really sweet-natured Thais when first the British, then the Japanese, now the military regime, came along to keep the Burmese in check.

Of what other crimes are the Burmese regime accused?

Of depriving their people of prosperity.

Or protecting them from the evils of consumerism, as I see it.

Of selling out to the Chinese by letting them plunder Burma's natural assets (oil, jade, timber etc).

Or avoiding another Tibet-style invasion, as I see it, because the far-sighted Burmese regime have had the wit to turn their back on the fading American superpower and pin their hopes to the emerging Chinese colossus.

Of locking up Aung San Suu Kyi, the nearest thing we have to a modern saint, for the crime of winning a fair and open general election.

Mmmm. I think you have a point there. The military regime may have gone too far in putting under permanent arrest the one person who everyone would like to see running the country.

But fair's fair. No military regime is perfect. I think we can forgive them this one little peccadillo.

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