Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
China has turned Myanmar into a cautionary tale — one that exposes its true nature not as a superpower patron but as a vulture mercantilist. The West, led by the US, abandoned Myanmar just as it abandoned Afghanistan. And China swooped in, not to save, but to scavenge: arming all sides, securing resources, and solidifying… Read more.
I warned disgraced Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi that the generals she courted would never let her roam free. She envisioned herself as a de facto Mother Teresa of politics, presuming she could meddle with a sense of glorified serenity while remaining above it all. In fact, here is how I opened the latest… Read more.
In November 2012, Barack Obama became the first US president to visit Myanmar. More to the point, he became the first world leader to make a pilgrimage to the home of its celebrated democracy activist, Aung San Suu Kyi. That home, of course, is where she spent 15 years under house arrest. This is why… Read more.
History is littered with public figures who betrayed the public trust. But no betrayal has been more shocking and disillusioning than Aung San Suu Kyi’s complicity in genocide against the Rohingya. I have vented my own shock and disillusionment in such commentaries as “Aung San Suu Kyi Becoming Democratic Mascot of Myanmar’s Military Dictatorship,” March… Read more.
Other institutions should do the same; governments should boycott her country, Myanmar. I was in the vanguard of those denouncing Aung San Sui Kyi, the Nobel Peace Laureate, for her complicity in Myanmar’s genocide against the Rohingyas. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find any Western commentator who did so publicly before I did here:… Read more.
There was considerable disagreement among the Catholic clergy and political commentariat about the wisdom of Francis dignifying Myanmar with a papal visit. But there was consensus that, if he did, he would face a categorical imperative to not only condemn this country’s genocidal sins but dare to speak the name of the victims of those… Read more.
A few months ago, I damned Aung San Suu Kyi as the ‘godmother of ethnic cleansing.” I did not think then that anyone could damn her more. I was wrong. But I suppose it should come as no surprise that two acclaimed song writers have found more damning words: The Irish musicians Bob Geldof and… Read more.
Government forces and militant Buddhists have persecuted Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar for years. So it’s hardly surprising that fleeing Rohingyas have now created a humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh. This rivals the notorious crisis Syrian refugees created in Europe. The first thing Rohingya villagers fleeing Myanmar notice when they get to Bangladesh, apart from the stench… Read more.
Last month, Myanmar (aka Burma) took a very symbolic step along its long and garrisoned road towards democracy. That’s when members of its first democratically elected government took their seats in parliament. Burma embarked upon a democratic era on Monday as a new parliament sat for the first time, with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi finally… Read more.
It’s arguable that Nelson Mandela of South Africa was the only political leader who commanded more universal admiration and respect over the past 50 years than Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar. Both seemed bonded by an uncompromising commitment to democratic principles, which they honored by spending 27 and 15 years as political prisoners, respectively.… Read more.
