I’m glad the New York Times put this on their front page because I feel it has been vastly under-covered. Myanmar has quietly become, one of, if not the most corrupt country in the world. The scale of financial crime and fraud alone is unimaginable.
AmericanDadWeeb on
Golden triangle my behated
Syards-Forcus on
It’s a failed state where the old ruling junta is itself driving a lot of the criminal activity; I’m unsurprised. Chinese organized crime influence was already very significant in the border areas before the civil war broke out.
I do think the popular support for democracy is somewhat there, and is most prevalent among the younger, less sectarian rebels, but structurally the issues are extremely severe.
The best case scenario probably involves the more trustworthy ethnic armed groups cutting some sort of federalization deal after the SAC is toppled, but power is far too fractured for that to happen.
The US should help more. We’ve been funneling a couple hundred million dollars over there but that’s nowhere near enough. We could learn from the failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, and take a less direct approach rather than blunt intervention. The situation is also strategically more favorable – he old regime has been toppled in much of the country already, rather than coming in, toppling the old regime, and having the power vacuum blow up in our face.
Cultural competence is probably the issue though. There aren’t many Burmese-Americans and there are many dubious armed groups that won’t face any consequences for abusing their power. The best option is likely just to send more aid and guidance to the least sketchy people.
There should be a lot more Burmese-Americans, the justification for refugee status seems pretty ironclad given the situation…
3 Comments
I’m glad the New York Times put this on their front page because I feel it has been vastly under-covered. Myanmar has quietly become, one of, if not the most corrupt country in the world. The scale of financial crime and fraud alone is unimaginable.
Golden triangle my behated
It’s a failed state where the old ruling junta is itself driving a lot of the criminal activity; I’m unsurprised. Chinese organized crime influence was already very significant in the border areas before the civil war broke out.
I do think the popular support for democracy is somewhat there, and is most prevalent among the younger, less sectarian rebels, but structurally the issues are extremely severe.
The best case scenario probably involves the more trustworthy ethnic armed groups cutting some sort of federalization deal after the SAC is toppled, but power is far too fractured for that to happen.
The US should help more. We’ve been funneling a couple hundred million dollars over there but that’s nowhere near enough. We could learn from the failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, and take a less direct approach rather than blunt intervention. The situation is also strategically more favorable – he old regime has been toppled in much of the country already, rather than coming in, toppling the old regime, and having the power vacuum blow up in our face.
Cultural competence is probably the issue though. There aren’t many Burmese-Americans and there are many dubious armed groups that won’t face any consequences for abusing their power. The best option is likely just to send more aid and guidance to the least sketchy people.
There should be a lot more Burmese-Americans, the justification for refugee status seems pretty ironclad given the situation…