Guest Column: By Dr Kumar David
One can’t blame the Rajapakses for climbing into bed with the Burmese military gorillas, they were following in the footsteps of India which turned venal for Burmese gratification much earlier in 1993; and of course China has been wallowing in similar sin for decades. But there is a difference between our government and the other two; they did it out of pure greed, panting for treasure, mineral wealth, teak and oil. With the Rajapskses it was birds of a feather flocking together, dictators and near dictators of the world huddling in each others arms, codling for comfort. The love nest embraced others of similar ilk, the late unlamented Gaddafi and the soon to be skewered Bashir al-Assad. Now the clump is falling apart like a house of cards; five or six down and just two or three to go. True the road to democracy in the Maghreb, the Middle East and even Asia is erratic, chugging along like an old bus, a start-stop process; vide Egypt. But forward movement there certainly is.
America played its Burmese card coolly and is lining up for political pay-off. Obviously, Obama and Clinton are setting Aung San Suu Ki up to take the helm and the current civilian government, though cobbled by the military, seems reconciled to the inevitable. As sure as morning follows night, Suu Ki will storm back on a tidal wave at the next free election and that will leave China with a bowlful of egg on its face and New Delhi looking morally more decrepit than ever since its under the table complicity in war crimes in Sri Lanka. The aces in the long-term game are stacked in American hands. While only broad brush comments can be made this early, for sure Washington will cash in on China’s soft underbelly much to the latter’s discomfiture. Actually I do not belong to the school that holds that Obama’s new Asia-Pacific strategy is military encirclement of China on land (from Australia to Burma through Thailand, Korea and Japan), and in all the surrounding waters. No, it’s a more complex strategy aimed at drawing China out, economically, into Asia-Pacific and global financial markets and expanding imports into China, while holding the strategic aces in US hands.
America played its Burmese card coolly and is lining up for political pay-off. Obviously, Obama and Clinton are setting Aung San Suu Ki up to take the helm and the current civilian government, though cobbled by the military, seems reconciled to the inevitable. As sure as morning follows night, Suu Ki will storm back on a tidal wave at the next free election and that will leave China with a bowlful of egg on its face and New Delhi looking morally more decrepit than ever since its under the table complicity in war crimes in Sri Lanka. The aces in the long-term game are stacked in American hands. While only broad brush comments can be made this early, for sure Washington will cash in on China’s soft underbelly much to the latter’s discomfiture. Actually I do not belong to the school that holds that Obama’s new Asia-Pacific strategy is military encirclement of China on land (from Australia to Burma through Thailand, Korea and Japan), and in all the surrounding waters. No, it’s a more complex strategy aimed at drawing China out, economically, into Asia-Pacific and global financial markets and expanding imports into China, while holding the strategic aces in US hands.
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