The Useless Tree

The Face of Legalism Today

    I know, I am beating a dead horse but I couldn’t not post about the sad and frustrating stories coming out of Burma.  It seems that the military dictators are more interested in going forward with a sham referendum, which they feel will give them some shred of political legitimacy, instead of doing the hard work of saving the people afflicted by the horrendous cyclone:

One of the first official announcements after the cyclone struck,
killing tens of thousands of people and leaving close to a million
homeless, was that the referendum would proceed as planned.

Since then, the government has relented a bit, postponing the vote
for two weeks in 47 townships in the worst-hit areas, where some
villages were obliterated by the storm.

The junta’s plan to go ahead with the vote while restricting the
delivery of disaster aid from the United Nations and other relief
agencies has drawn widespread criticism and amazement.

On Friday, almost a week after the cyclone, Myanmar continued to
block all but a trickle of foreign aid, barring large-scale deliveries
by the World Food Program and other United Nations relief agencies.

In one of the gentler comments, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki
Moon, addressing the generals, suggested that due to the scope of the
disaster, "it may be prudent to focus instead on mobilizing all
available resources and capacity for the emergency response."

As an analyst noted, some of the same soldiers who could be rescuing
survivors are likely to be dispatched instead to guard polling places
and help carry out the balloting.

"It is one of the best examples of the disregard for the people by
the military," said the analyst, Josef Silverstein, an expert on
Myanmar at Rutgers University.

    They are more concerned with political power than the needs of the people.  Seems like they are reading Han Fei Tzu and not Confucius:

Nowadays, when scholars counsel a ruler, they do not urge him to wield authority, which is the certain way to success, but instead insist that he must practice benevolence and righteousness before he can become a true king.  This is, in effect, to demand tht the ruler rise to the level of Confucius, and that all the ordinary people of the time be like Confucius’ disciples.  Such a policy is bound to fail.   Han Fei Tzu (103)

    The military dictators in Rangoon have obviously opted for authority over benevolence.  Their notion of "success" is defined strictly in terms of their ability to hold on to power, and that clear means a failure to serve the people.  That’s what Legalism will get you….

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12 responses to “The Face of Legalism Today”

  1. isha Avatar
    isha

    If Laura Bush is really care about the welfare of the poor, why not give the aids to Iraq, or, even better, New Orlean?
    Now warships from the “civilized world” are really to force their goodwill on the Burmaese. It is all part of the oil game ( the control of sea lane). All the players know this. The rest are just smoke screen.

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  2. Comment Avatar
    Comment

    HA HA HA! New Orleans had FAR more warning, lead time, preparation availability and resources than Burma ever did to prevent their disaster. New Orleans didn’t do a damn thing, preferring instead to siphon off billions in federal money for DECADES. Ask yourself this – when push came to shove, what did the local leaders do? Mayor Ray Nagin moved his family to the highest floor in the tallest motel directly overlooking the Superdome to watch the show. A legislator, firmly believing in cold cash, commandeered FEDERAL DISASTER RELIEF RESOURCES to GET HIS KICKBACK MONEY OUT OF HIS FREEZER. Local officials, including the Democrat governor of Louisiana, stalled disaster relief for days. People trying to leave New Orleans on foot were turned back at gunpoint by the NOPD because EMBARRASSING BUSH WAS FAR MORE IMPORTANT TO THE DEMOCRATS THAN THE LIVES OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE AND AN ENTIRE CITY. People should remember that, as well as heed the advice not to (re)build in the ^$&*ing flood plain.
    If you watch the coverage of the current state of affairs there, even some of the die-hard optimists who moved back got fed up with the fact that disaster relief wasn’t getting to them. It was being siphoned off higher up in the government. No doubt about it, Ray Nagin’s “Chocolate City” is a sweet setup for some. Just not most. Remember, New Orleans has been referred to as “The Big Sleazy” (a play on NO’s nickname ‘The Big Easy’) for decades – this just revs up the take and the sliminess by several notches.
    As far as Iraq goes, we’re currently running ourselves into the ground giving aid to Iraq after forcing out a genocidal dictator, in spite of massive opposition and against much world opinion. It hasn’t been the debacle that so many were so quick to predict. The Kurds are a lot better off, for starters.
    Getting back to Myanmar, it’s not even a question of warships – it’s a question of letting in NGA aid personnel to handle assessment, distribution and logistics – all of which needs to be done to prevent waste and death. Their caution is somewhat understandable following infiltration and exploitation by multiple nations, including India, Britain, possibly the US, China, and Thailand – the last of which is hardly a poster child for open borders and foreign intervention!
    As for Myanmar’s military junta and the referendum, history shows it’s a no-win situation for them no matter whether they proceed with the referendum or not – but their thinking is probably influenced by the prospect that if they hold the referendum they won’t be accused of trying to hold on to power like Musharraf was (and HE was facing major insurrection threats to national stability, almost all of which were anti-democratic). Sad, yes. Avoidable, yes. But the whole world wants to dump on the junta and the force of world opinion will consequently help to worsen a great humanitarian disaster.

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  3. isha Avatar
    isha

    What is wrong with the French? This doesn’t smell neocolonialism. It is the classical old-fashioned colonialism. Seems French lost their sense of reality and still lives in the memory of the good old days before Vietnam …

    Comment… you mentioned the “preventing waste and death”, seems there was a fitting situation in New Orleans, when the local police joining the mobs to rob the shops and random shootings was ( still is ) a routine. Did French and other “civlized” ( means ex-colonial) powers send in their warships and “NGA aid personnels to handle assessment, distribution and logistics — all of which needs to be done to prevent waste and death”? … I enjoy your thoughtful comment, just a in a picky mood on this…

    France will send it’s warship “Mistral” to Burma to deliver 1500 t needed goods. Shall other nation join in ?
    France will send it’s warship “Mistral” to Burma to deliver 1500 t goods and is not willing to hand the things over to the Burmese generals. Instead France wants to distribute the goods itself or through French NGO. Shall other nations join in ?
    14 hours ago – 3 days left to answer.

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  4. isha Avatar
    isha

    It is the notion of another “color revolution” that got a lot of people excited about Myanmar. In the Capitals around the “civilized world”, “the fate of the Burmese people is the last consideration in these political calculations.”
    Check this out:
    http://www.radicalleft.net/blog/_archives/2008/5/8/3681003.html

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  5. Comment Avatar
    Comment

    What’s wrong with the French? For one thing they’re just waking up to the reality of Muslim colonization…
    On preventing waste and death – in the end far fewer lives were lost in NO after secondary effects than have already been lost in Myanmar before secondary effects. So there’s a difference of scale – probably as many as two degrees of significance worth of difference and more to come.
    Second, international commentary on NO was mostly Schadenfreude and tried to use NO as evidence of Bush’s criminal negligence and continued existence of American racism – the desired outcome was embarrassment (a successful effort in spite of the reality on the ground in NO, which proves that you just have to repeat something loudly enough and long enough to get people to buy it). On the other hand, commentary on Myanmar’s crisis centers around the plight of the poor Burmese and the incompetence of the junta – the desired outcomes are the deposing of the junta and the distribution of aid in that order.
    France is in the “White Man’s Guilt Fork” – there is no good outcome in this for France –
    If France delivers goods, it is playing into the repression of the Burmese people by supporting the junta.
    If France does not deliver goods, they are just callously indifferent to the fate of the Burmese.
    If France delivers goods and retains NGA expertise for delivery, they’re just a bunch of racist colonialists.
    So as you can see, the French are forked. But not as badly as the Burmese.

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  6. isha Avatar
    isha

    Comment:
    1.
    You didn’t answer:”Did French send in their warships and “NGA aid personnels to handle assessment, distribution and logistics — ” to New Orlean. Surely in New Orlean is still in need of humanitarian need, and why don’t they practice their so-called ” White Man’s Guilt Fork” in New Orlean, surely there is a racial tones here. Maybe their warships will be sinked in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean?
    2.
    “White Man’s Guilt Fork” or “White Man’s Burden”?
    http://www.myanmar.gov.mm/Article/Article2001/Jun/June1.htm
    3.
    “What’s wrong with the French? For one thing they’re just waking up to the reality of Muslim colonization…”
    That is classic and really showed your color. I have no comment…
    Isha

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  7. Lindel Avatar
    Lindel

    Your linking of legalism and confucianism to a current event is very astute. The generals in Myanmar also are aware that the scale of the humitarian relief effort will very much eclipse the scope of their military power and it will be impossible for the surviving burmese to not see that the magnitude of the humantarian “good” is vastly superior to the magnitude of the force of the generals guns and bayonets. The people of burma cannot fail to see that the Burmese generals power is limited to their guns and bayonets and that they have no other mechanisms to maintain control and are only strong because they have rifles and the other burmese have nothing.
    The reality is the scope of the cyclone damage is such that if the military junta refuses to accept aid the disaster will also seriously weaken or possibly bankrupt the current government, possibly leaving open the possibility of a coup or one general taking advantage of another to elevate his position by eliminating another. They are happy to have relief supplies flown into the main airport so that the military junta can control distribution, and use the supplies to further strengthen their position.
    The remoteness of myanmar and the area where the disaster victims are requires support from military planes in order to transport and store the food so that it gets to the people who actually need it. This means US and other UN members navies and military transports are needed.
    The military first attempted to stop the relief and was content to let people die to maintain control, but the scope of the disaster means many starving burmese will make it to the cities and the governments weakness to handle the disaster and complaisence will not be deniable.
    Their only choice now is to open the doors and try to be seen working with and leading the relief effort.
    But still this disaster is of a scope to topple a regime or at least shake it up to where there is some internal shift in power.

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  8. Zoomzan Avatar
    Zoomzan

    When I speak with other Chinese people about Myanmar, they mostly support the cause of Myanmar democracy.
    However, I’m less than enthusiastic. The reason is that Myanmar is a country with many hostile ethnic groups, including large Chinese communities.
    If the junta is overthrown, we might see prolonged civil war, ethnic cleansing, etc.

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  9. Comment Avatar
    Comment

    In response to “isha’s” comments – Isha, I did answer your question. I said NO is fundamentally a different situation from Myanmar in terms of 1) scale, 2) international actors, 3) domestic actors and politics, 4) causative factors, and 5) desired outcomes. That’s why the French didn’t send container ships to the mouth of the Mississippi – it wouldn’t have helped allay 1) or achieve 5).
    As for Burma somehow being a “White Man’s Burden” situation to the French (a concept the French apprehend(ed) in a very different way from the British when you compare the former colonies of each), go back and reread your Burmese history. I still contend that it is a “White Man’s Fork” situation and that the two descriptions are not synonymous as you contend.
    Three, I don’t think ANYONE could seriously contend that France is successfully absorbing its increasing Muslim population. To the extent that they’ve failed to develop policies that allow for either this absorption or other resolution to the related problems, they haven’t woken up to the nature or extent of the issues yet. Perhaps you could explain in greater detail how this comment shows my “true color” as you see it.
    Finally, I’d like to applaud Zoomzan’s post on this topic. Zoomzan is right to point out that Myanmar is composed of multiple ethnic groups, including Chinese communities. Between inter-tribal and tribal vs. govt hostilities, human smuggling, the opium trade, geopolitical jockeying and internal political conflicts, there’s potential for a lot of ongoing disruption. I suspect the best realistic outcome for Myanmar would be a Thai-like steady-state future of ongoing military coups – maximum turnover with minimum internal disruption – but I am concerned that the operative stabilizing forces are not present to allow this.

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  10. Comment Avatar
    Comment

    Lindel wrote –
    “The generals in Myanmar also are aware that the scale of the humitarian relief effort will very much eclipse the scope of their military power and it will be impossible for the surviving burmese to not see that the magnitude of the humantarian “good” is vastly superior to the magnitude of the force of the generals guns and bayonets. The people of burma cannot fail to see that the Burmese generals power is limited to their guns and bayonets and that they have no other mechanisms to maintain control and are only strong because they have rifles and the other burmese have nothing.”
    To which I contend – I think it is more likely that the junta views the prospect of aid as an excuse for incursions on and disruption to Burmese sovereignty. Having seen some of the rhetoric posted against the junta, and given both Burmese history and the geopolitical situation, they may not be wrong to fear this. Consider what happened in and resulted from the last major American intervention in the region, and then go on to consider that there are other “interested” parties whose interventions might not be as beneficial.
    Furthermore, the military’s might is not limited to “guns and bayonets” and weapons, but extends to manpower, transportation and logistics- which are three needed elements in any relief effort. I’m telling you, the threat of violence isn’t all that the junta has to offer.
    A lot of this debate (not just in this forum) seems to center on a false separation/opposition between the junta/military and the people of Myanmar. After all, what is a nation’s military composed of? What is a general without an army? What are weapons without the hands to wield them?
    There’s often a profound rationale for the conferring of the Mandate of Heaven. Analyses of such situations are obscured by the simple facts that people are NOT the same everywhere (a peculiarly American conceit in which Americans are so often and peculiarly disappointed) and do not desire the things other people believe they want – that’s a lesson we should have taken away from Vietnam, Cambodia, and later Tienanmen and have apparently failed so to do.

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  11. Lindel Avatar
    Lindel

    There are ethnic, religious, and tribal differences among burmese. The general’s and the soldiers are not necessarily all that attached to the ones starving.
    Yes the generals could use their military trucks, planes, and infrastructure to provide relief, but they were more concerned about the referendum to confirm their dictatorship. They were not concerned about these people before, they are not all that concerned now from a humanitarian point of view, they just don’t want their apple cart to upset.
    Yes it is natural that they would expect a “coup from the west” to be part of the international relief effort, because that is what they would do. In fact now the apple cart is very upset and they have to contend with which general was most impacted by the storm and how that shifts the domestic balance of power. The relief supplies and materials are a bargaining chip to be controlled to maintain power. The international aid cuts across those boundaries.
    The international relief organizations are also concerned about being shot and attacked by the soldiers. That is why they asked for permission and visas for workers before they were willing to go in.
    China sent a big plane for of aid first so the generals could use that to maintain control, but it it is not enough, and they can’t expect more from China now. So they are stuck.
    Admiral Keating is going to visit General Swe to make it clear that there is no military objective in the relief effort. He will most likely make it clear that the US military transport used will be happy to operate in a supporting role to the Burmese military leading the effort.
    This problem has overwhlemed the ability of the burmese government to resolve and maintain control.
    They will have to accept help. And it is help that will be given not a military take over.
    But the reality is that this crises will show the cracks in the legitimacy and competence of the military rule of Myanmar.
    How it plays out is unknown and I don;t know enough to make any predictions, only that there will be some kind of fall out, as this unfolds over the the next several months and possible years.
    Inflation in China, increasing gas prices, and food prices are also contributing to the slowness and political issues of the relief effort.

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  12. Sam Avatar
    Sam

    Yes, what has been shown in all of this is that the Burmese generals are concerned more about maintaining their power than they are at relieving the suffering of the people – and in this they follow in the tradition of Legalism, even if it is not an explicit part of their training and tradition.

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