The golden pagodas of Bagán that just collapsed after the cataclysm that has shaken Myanmar are a sample of the great past of his people. Last that ended when in 1885, the last king of Burma had to deliver his country to the British empire. King Thibow Min must have predicted all kinds of calamities, but hardly thought that evil would last more than 100 years, or that the people were going to resist it.
Here we are 140 years later, and Myanmar does not leave the nightmare that the British caused by destroying the old power structures to generate divisions that would allow them to govern such an ethnically diverse country. After independence in 1948, the country predictably sank into a civil war between ethnic groups, followed by another foreseeable military coup. This was followed by a series of rebellions, inter -ethnic violence and finally a new civil war against the always present Military Board that leads an inept cleptocracy until today. A revolving nightmare that jumps into the eyes of the world after an earthquake of 7.7 degrees that has crushed cities and killed thousands; The last indignity in whipping the Burmese people.
Although Ne Win’s military coup in 1960 initially served to put order, the Board quickly became a tyranny that drowned the country’s development prospects, generated more instability and resulted in the deplorable conditions in which the country currently has to face this tragedy.
To begin, the level of destruction of structures in Mandalay, the second city of the country, demonstrates that the constructions for decades have been made without the minimum standards. Not even Naypyidaw, the new capital built with waste in the middle of nowhere by paranoid generals in the 2000s, was saved from destruction despite being an alleged impenetrable fortress. The Supreme Court and Parliament have collapsed, as well as part of the palace of the dictator min hlaing.
Although the Board propaganda in a propaganda way that the ‘people’s soldiers’ would be the saviors after the earthquake, in Mandalay there is no soldier in sight helping in rescue works. Almost the entire army is caught in the multiple battle fronts, desperate defending military bases and territory under attack. The earthquake was not an impediment to the Board continuing to bombard rebel territory, even after asking the international community for help.
This aid must be channeled through the Board that has a history of obstructing assistance in rebel areas retaining shipments in customs, prohibiting transportation for rescuers and even attacking convoys, as happened last year after Typhon Yagi. On this occasion, the Board has blocked roads to the affected areas with controls and interrogations that generate eternal delays and cost lives.
The city of Sagaing, one of the most affected, receives helping help because it is in a disputed area. Even in the affected areas that are under the control of the Board, it manipulates assistance according to the perceived loyalty of the people of each area.
Much of the urban areas of Mandalay, Sagaing and Naypyidaw will have to be demolished and re -built. But a government that only has total control over 21% of the national territory, which is isolated from the world and under constant attack from all directions, does not have the capacity or silver for such reconstruction, or the legitimacy to access the international financial system.
The Chinese, ancient ally of the Board, has become indifferent. Over time the Chinese were not only realized by the ineptitude of the Burmese generals, but that they were allowing and profiting from the existence of entire peoples dedicated to the Internet scams, whose victims were mostly Chinese citizens.
The fact that most of the affected area is under the control of the Board, presents a golden opportunity for the rebels. But nothing guarantees that they remain united or that they are loyal to the democratic government in exile. They could fall into a new civil war between them and perpetuate the nightmare.
One cannot fail to wonder how Myanmar would be now if the Board had allowed Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leaders for decades to govern the country freely when they took it out of the confinement in 2016. Instead, they had it with a tied hand and a gun in the head, and five years later they left the farce of the ‘Democratic transition’ to enclose it again. Today, instead of enjoying a legitimate government and a prosperous economy to face the earthquake, Myanmar is mired in the chaos that caused this last blow. His Kyi lies in the ignominy, prisoner of the Board and forgotten by the international community that once had it on a pedestal.
Those Peruvians who usually say the phrase: “I hope we would have been conquered by England,” they should think of Myanmar before releasing such a statement.
