Responding to the cyclone in Myanmar

Morton Abramowitz and Jonathan Kolieb ,  Washington D.C.   |  Thu, 05/15/2008 12:19 PM  |  Opinion

The terrible destructiveness of Cyclone Nargis has uncovered a simple truth about Myanmar and the failure of the international community's policies toward that country: It's about the people.

The people of Myanmar have endured over four decades of man-made disaster. Once the rice-bowl of Asia, Myanmar struggles to feed its own people; rich in natural resources (including gas and oil) the country stagnates with many forced to live in poverty and the gap between the military super-rich and the Myanmarese people grows wider.

Education and medical care have gone to hell, AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases spread across Myanmar's borders to neighboring countries, along with exports of vast quantities of synthetic drugs and human-trafficking schemes abusing the Myanmarese desperate for a better life elsewhere. Nor has Myanmar's military made it easy for outsiders to help.

The ever-climbing death toll, the harrowing images of villages torn asunder, of trees uprooted, homes demolished, and long lines of ordinary Myanmarese queuing for drinking water and food now allows the world the opportunity to graphically reacquaint ourselves with the travails of Myanmar's people, long in desperate need of outside help which never came.

Rather they have been incessantly inundated with words, international resolutions, and congressional imprecations about the very real iniquities of the Myanmarese junta but very little practical help. Indeed, the public discourse on Myanmar -- this past month on the "sham" referendum next week on the military's "roadmap to democracy -- has been one-dimensional.

While paying lip service to the human needs of the population, the vast majority of the policy-writing on Myanmar focuses on what to do about the ruling military junta -- engage or sanction -- how to bring about political change. That has been standard international fare for many years. But it has accomplished zilch politically and avoided focus on the practical problem of getting health and education services to the public through a regime that does not care.

Now with this new plague upon them the need for help is even more apparent. The immediate response has a certain familiarity. On Monday, the White House had Laura Bush offer its initial response to the cyclone disaster. She pledged US$250,000 -- indeed, Mrs. Bush was seemingly so embarrassed at the sum that she did not volunteer it in her press conference, but merely confirmed it following a reporter's query. Mrs. Bush indicated that more aid would be forthcoming, but that largely depended on the Myanmarese government first accepting an official U.S. DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team) to evaluate needs. The EU pledged an immediate $3 million -- no great shakes but better.

Many of the offers of aid from Washington and other capitals have come bundled with trenchant criticism of the Myanmarese junta: Criticizing the upcoming constitutional referendum, the iniquities of the military government and stressing the need for continued pressure -- not likely (however merited) to encourage Myanmar to opens its gates to the American DART team and other Western aid officials. Nor does President Bush signing legislation on Tuesday giving Aung San Suu Kyi the Congressional Gold Medal.

Once again how does all that help the Myanmarese people? For too many years nations have not come to grip with that question.

As the week wore on and the true extent of the tragedy became known, the U.S. was more forthcoming -- increasing its aid commitment to $3.25 million. Other offers of assistance from around the world were announced and scores of humanitarian organizations mobilized to assist the effort.

Disturbingly, the Myanmarese junta has been hampering the relief mission: Rejecting offers of help from "enemy" militaries, failing to issues visas to foreign aid workers (many of whom are waiting in neighboring Thailand) and unnecessarily impeding the actions of UN agencies and other international organizations already operating within the country. Whatever the moral turpitude of the regime borne out by this crisis our efforts must directed at getting aid into the country and distributed to the cyclone's victims.

Natural disasters can be tremendous opportunities for change. The Asian tsunami and the U.S.'s heroic response is testament to that. Nor can it be precluded that Cyclone Nargis and its aftermath may also have momentous political ramifications inside Myanmar. We certainly hope so, but right now the focus should not be on politics but squarely on the people, and that must not be allowed to be submerged by incessant political posturing.

That humanitarian focus must be sustained beyond the short-term relief effort, for whatever the problems of dealing with a terrible government the Myanmarese people desperately need our assistance for years to come.

Morton Abramowitz is former Ambassador to Thailand, and senior fellow at The Century Foundation in Washington DC, where Jonathan Kolieb is research associate.

A  |   A  |   A  |    |   |    |    |    |  

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.