Burma: Slave Nation

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Scheming despots are, of course, nothing new. What sets SLORC-run Burma apart is slave labor and massive displacement of whole sections of the population. No modern state, whatever its totalitarian stripe, has turned itself into a vast slave labor camp in order to "develop." Certainly, Pol Pot tried it in Cambodia as a means of control, but no one matches the SLORC in paving the way to "the market" with such brutal audacity. If the generals are allowed to succeed in this project—and they are already getting support from important allies like Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia, which have been promoting "constructive engagement," a euphemism borrowed from the Reagan administration's support for the apartheid regime in South Africa—they will command a pool of labor that will undercut the cheapest in Asia. This will attract capital, and eventually loans will be granted by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. If this occurs, "globalization" will mark another gain and humanity another loss.

Little of this has been in the news. "I'm afraid," Aung San Suu Kyi told me, "that countries and events keep slipping from the headlines, and we have slipped." That indifference has recently faded, though, as Aung San Suu Kyi's celebrity has risen and the SLORC has mounted its own public relations campaign. In September, SLORC officials held their first press conference since Aung San Suu Kyi's release, announcing that she had collaborated with subversives and received subversive materials, including a videotape of the Hollywood movie Beyond Rangoon. They vowed to take steps against her "if and when required."

The day before the officials’ conference, Aung San Suu Kyi held a press conference of her own vowing that she would continue to hold regular weekend rallies at the front gate of her Rangoon residence. "We are increasing the momentum of our work, and they are increasing the momentum of arrests," she told reporters. She has asked investors and tourists to stay away, pointing out that the foreign exchange they bring will widen the gulf between rich and poor and reinforce the power of the SLORC. "It is just not possible," she said, "for foreign visitors, on a short guided trip, to know the truth, if they are interested in the truth."

Indeed, few foreigners will be aware that a thousand people were recently thrown out of the village they occupied for generations near Lashio in Shan State, so that the army could extend the golf course for tourists. Dumped at gunpoint on land that is dry stubble, where it is not possible even to sink a well, they can only watch helplessly as their precious water sprays the greens of a new golf course.

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