Spinning Myanmar

BBC's Newshour recently ran a story on Myanmar and the forgotten internal war that country faces, a conflict exacerbated by the February 2021 coup and takeover by the military. Two years later, the news outlet wanted to revisit the story – or so it seemed.

Myanmar has been in the news in recent years regarding its persecution and expulsion of the Rohingya – a story beginning in earnest back in 2017, and the ups and downs, the rise and fall of Aung San Suu Kyi – now out of power and largely condemned by the West, despite winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

It turned out the BBC story was something of a hit piece – aimed at Russia and China. Indeed Myanmar may prove to be a flash point in the future, a potential conflict that could bring nations like China, the United States, and India into open confrontation.

The story focused on the junta's war on its own population and yet seemed to ignore the fact that portions of Myanmar have been in an effective state of civil war for decades – with conflicts rooted in the colonial period, the drug trade, and even as part of the fallout from the Chinese Civil War. Glossing over these points or omitting them altogether, the BBC clearly wanted to emphasize that the junta is an international pariah and yet receiving arms from Moscow and Beijing. That's when I knew the point of the story.

And then when the end was reached and the BBC never even bothered to mention that the US has historically supported some of the ethnic militias fighting the central government in Yangon, and maybe still does – I knew it was just a propaganda piece. Even if the weapons and money have slowed or stopped, the US is still involved, putting pressure on various groups and attempting to manipulate the situation on the ground. Additionally the article ignored that fact that growing numbers in the US policy and think-tank world are openly calling for US support of the dissidents and rebels – a clear attempt to wrest Yangon away from the Chinese and Russian spheres. It's a reality that could drive the Junta into being more vicious, feeling the need to quickly suppress the protests and get Myanmar out of the news cycle.

Perhaps the most comical aspect of the story was the report that the EU, while imposing sanctions on Yangon has nevertheless exempted the garment industry – in order to avoid targeting the poor.

The reporters are either stupid or think we are. One could be excused for thinking the interests of all the Western companies that rely on Burmese sweatshops just might be part of the equation. Money and profits always come before people. The attempt by the BBC and the EU to dress up this reality in some kind of faux-humanitarian garb isn't really funny at all. It's insulting.

The bottom line is this – the junta is a corrupt oligarchy. That's hardly shocking is it? And yet the situation in Myanmar is actually rather complicated. The true purpose of the story was to smear the junta and run yet another anti-Moscow and anti-Beijing story.