Beyond Burma Versus the World

摘要

WHEN CYCLONE NARGIS tore through Burma's Ir-rawaddy Delta on May 3, it not only inflicted death and destruction on a scale unseen in Asia since the 2004 tsunami, but also generated pronounced caricatures of poses long struck in the country's largely static political drama. At center stage, the oppressive State Peace and Development Council was unresponsive and utterly self-serving. In the wings, opposition forces in the democratic camp and ethnic minority groups were aghast and totally powerless. Backstage, Asian states scrambled to provoke some element of civility in an unbending regime. Far from the main action, Western states formed a kind of Greek chorus calling insistently for the ruling military clique to adhere to global humanitarian standards.