A couple of months ago when the Myanmar's military regime crackdown on the monks, I was one of the few people who supported Singapore’s stance not to cut off ties with the country. Reason being a lot of Singapore’s money is tied up in Myanmar.
But enough is enough. With official reports of over 20,000 dead, over 40,000 missing, and the death toll expected to hit 100,000 in total, the military government is still refusing international aid. In fact, the first major international aid shipment was only allowed in on Thursday, and they still snubbed a U.S. offer to help the struggling cyclone victims.
Here’s a news flash; Beggars can’t be choosers! For five days after the storm, U.N. teams and other foreign aid workers still can’t deliver food, water and medicine to survivors because, get this, THEY CAN’T GET VISAS TO ENTER THE COUNTRY!
What’s wrong with this junta? Even in the history of military juntas, Myanmar's is taking the cake. I know they don’t really care about the suffering of the people, but 100,000 dead is a hell of a big number. Entire villages have been submerged, I seen pictures of bodies floating in muddy water and children who are separated from their parents because their parents are dead.
Compare the action of Myanmar's military regime to the people they were cracking down on. The monks south of Yangon are going without food so that others could eat. Reports state that there’s not enough food, so they (the monks) are giving food to the children and the old people, and they are going hungry.
I tell you, the junta is very lucky Singapore is such money-minded, wealth-obsessed country. After all, money is the only reason why our government has being so amazingly quiet on this. Money talks, 100,000 dead…that’s secondary.
2 comments:
So you're saying the Singapore government is just as guilty as the juntas because to safeguard its own investment interests in Myanmar, it has chosen to ignore the inhumanity that the juntas displayed to the sufferings of their own Myanmar people?
Of course not. But as a follow member of ASEAN, the Singapore government (and the rest of ASEAN) is in a strong position to put some pressure on the junta to sae their oen people. I say the Singapore government should do just that.
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