Games Burmese Military Rulers Play

Date: Thursday, November 18 @ 17:30:41 GMT
Topic: International Politics

By Zin Linn
2004-11-14

Recent developments in Burma (Myanmar for the ruling military junta) are good food for thought for the political observer, political activist and the faithful.

Some consider the chain of events that preceded and followed the sacking of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt as a coup d’etat. Others view them as a counter coup. For some, these are nothing but a simple game of checkmating rivals. In reality, these events are all these and much more and are intrinsically linked to power politics the Junta plays by unleashing a reign of terror.

Yes, allegations of corruption were heard at the height of the on-going turmoil, but there is nothing new about such charges. Corruption is the stick the Junta uses often to discredit any one who falls out of its favour.

This is what they did to axe Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt. Read the 18-page booklet the Junta has brought out on November 7 to further discredit Nyunt if you don’t believe me.

But there is more than what meets the eye in the Nyunt tragedy. How the downfall of this most loyal foot soldier of the Senior General Than Shwe is scripted is a comment as much on the self-indulgent style of decision-making of Senior General Than Shwe as on the state of uncertainty prevailing in Burma.

Senior General Than Shwe is egocentric. His rule is a cause for concern for those of us pushing for return of Burma to the democratic path...

Khin Nyunt, as prime minister, headed the most powerful Defence Services Intelligence Bureau (DSIB). Today, he is under house arrest. Many ministers and intelligence officers who worked under him are facing music.

Minister of Home Affairs Col Tin Hlaing and Labour Minister Tin Win, both former military intelligence officers, were forced to retire. Four deputy ministers, Brig-Gen Khin Maung (Agriculture and Irrigation), Brig-Gen Kyaw Win (Industry), Brig-Gen Aung Thein (Livestock and Fisheries), and Nyi Hla Nge (Science and Technology) were fired.

Three high-ranking officials, Brig. Gen. Than Tun, Brig.Gen. Thein Swe, Col. Hla Min and Maj. Moe Thu were sent to jail on a 22-year sentence. The fate of some seniors like Maj. Gen. Kyaw Win, who was DSIB’s vice chief, is not known.

Col. Khin Maung Lin (Director-General of the Customs), Col.Tet Htut (Director-General of the Passport Section, Immigration Dept.) and U Tun Hla Aung (Director-General of the Bureau of Special Investigation- BSI) have been arrested; they are still under severe interrogation.

The Defence Services Intelligence Bureau (DSIB) was formed in August 2001 by amalgamating Military Intelligence Service (MIS) and the Office of Strategic Studies (OSS), a think-tank of the junta. Soon it emerged as the most powerful and influential agency with its footprint covering the entire country.

In domestic affairs, it hammered out cease-fire agreements with 17 major ethnic armed groups. And unleashed an ‘impressive’ propaganda war on ‘dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi. It was Gobbleism at its best.

Gen Nyunt was the key player who brutally suppressed the 1988 mass demonstrations against the military leaving thousands dead. His military secret police was the vehicle for enforcing the Junta’s sugarcoated reforms.

Khin Nyunt and his DSIB had ‘won spurs’ overseas too. They have helped the Junta to become a ‘respectable’ member of ASEAN. And helped to mend fences with China, India, Malaysia and Thailand.

The DSIB is also credited with persuading the Japanese Government not to go along with the Western Bloc on the Burma Policy. With every DSIB success, Nyunt’s stature improved. And the script for his downfall was readied in slow motion.

It’s common knowledge in Burma that every senior military officer possesses more than a million dollars in secret accounts although the salary may not be more than 100 dollars. What this means is that they make money on the sly through a percentage cut in all deals or through the narcotics trade.

All dictators turn a nelson’s eye to corruption amongst their followers. Because, corrupt practices that bring in wealth are seen as the perfect trade off for loyal support.

In 1962, when Gen. Ne Win seized power, his Revolutionary Council charged the civilian rulers of the day with corruption. It promised to root out corruption. Subsequent events showed how the army generals used corruption as a fig leaf to grab power and then exploited national security concerns to entrench themselves.

A dictator is a dictator. He never allows a rival centre of power near him or under him. This truism Gen Khin Nyunt had not remembered and he began to promote his personality cult. Since he remained mired in his own make believe dreams, he could not foresee the axe falling on him.

In that sense, the exit of Gen.Khin Nyunt and installation of Gen. Soe Win in his place spotlights the ‘power politics’ in the military, though the Generals claim that theirs’ is an ‘indivisible army’.

According to one source in Rangoon, Nyunt’s military intelligence had planned a coup but ‘leaking roofs’ alerted Than Shwe and that he quickly took preventive action to the dismay of his rivals.

That is the reason why analysts in Rangoon describe Than Shwe’s action as a counter coup. They refuse to see Khin Nyunt discomfiture in the ‘the power struggle’ as a conflict between soft-line democrats and the hard-line autocrats as some sections of the media tends to project.

In fact, their view is that Than Shwe moves are aimed at neither a political change nor a policy shift of the junta.

Khin Nyunt, as chief of the military intelligence, was a trickster; he managed to project an image of a soft-liner and patriot.

Than Shwe is no less crooked-and-twisted power player. He had masterminded the attack on the Nobel laureate's motorcade at Dapeyin on May 30, 2003.

Major conflict of interest between Than Shwe and Khin Nyunt date back to the time Dapeyin ambush was staged. Nearly a hundred innocent lives were lost in that pre-meditated action.

There are many tell tale marks to show that the Junta had planned and executed the massacre. It was a crude display of brute power to terrorise innocent people.

But when the tragedy sparked off an outcry, the army faced a dilemma on who should be made to bear the cross. Who would take the responsibility for the gruesome killing?

According to a source close to War Office in Rangoon, the plot was stage-managed by Senior General Than Shwe himself and the field-commander of the day, who is none other than the new Prime Minister Gen. Soe Win.

. Than Shwe loyalists executed the plot without Khin Nyunt's knowledge. But, he found himself in the firing line nationally and internationally. There were also demands for a special inquiry mission on Dapeyin to book the culprits.

To cover up the crime against humanity at Dapeyin, Than Shwe made a ‘bargain deal’ with Khin Nyunt. He announced a seven-step roadmap. Khin Nyunt became Prime Minister. The aim was no more than buying time to let the Dapeyin nightmare fade out from people's memory and to strengthen the power base.

Khin Nyunt agreed to go along and play the role assigned because he has his own ambitions; he has to wait for the right time to strike...

People know very well about Than Shwe and Khin Nyunt as birds of a feather; both are up to no good for Burma. None of the generals has a soft corner for Aung San Suu Kyi and her plight in detention. Their concern is power, money and more money. Therefore, her release remains uncertain.

People of Burma have shown their preference very clearly in the 1990 General Elections, when they gave a landslide victory to the National League for Democracy.

That vote shows people disagree with the military dictatorship or the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) as the present regime styles itself. This is the reason why the Junta regards the people as its arch-opposition and transformed the whole nation into a prison state.

It is pertinent to ask as to what had hastened the show down between Khin Nyunt and the forces loyal to the Senior General on October 18 at the Mingaladon Airport in Rangoon, a day before Nyunt was sacked?

As the powerful military intelligence chief, Khin Nyunt maintained tabs on other generals and prepared ‘secret files’ on each one of them. He considered these dossiers as his insurance but never thought that keeping such files in his cupboard could lead to his own downfall.

That was why on October 18, when the Rangoon Divisional Commander Brig. Gen. Myint Swe, one of Than Shwe's loyalists, ‘ordered’ him to surrender, Khin Nyunt was initially surprised and then hesitated. The gravity of the situation sunk in quickly and he gave up without demurring.

Agreeing to disagree is a fundamental right only of those who live under a democratic system.

In military-ruled Burma, disagreeing or dissident opinion against the incumbent dictator can be seen as a crime. The sole dictator is tightly controlling all organs of the state and the media to consolidate his stranglehold.

Addressing the Rangoon business community on October 24, 2004, Gen. Thura Shwe Mann, the number three in the Junta, justified the action against Khin Nyunt.

“He was corrupt and had to go. No one is above the law; everybody is equal before the law”, the General declared.

Then, what about the culprits of Dapeyin Massacre. Why are they still at large?

- Asian Tribune -

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