Thursday, August 28, 2008
Burma: Brutality over Propaganda | The Propaganda Report
http://www.thepropagandareport.com/2008/08/27/burma-brutality-over-propaganda/
By Hughford • August 27, 2008
George Packer writes a fascinating article this week in the New Yorker about the politics of persuasion in Rangoon, and offers an insider’s view of the brutal dictatorship and its opposers. Over the decades, Burma’s military rulers (composed of a cabinet of 10 generals) have systematically destroyed all elements of a functioning society in their country, effectively creating a pre-historic world crippled by superstition, brutality, and poverty.
The sign you see in the picture above was blown down in May by Cyclone Nargis, and hasn’t been put back up - an indication, perhaps, of its ineffectiveness. It seems to be representative of the military junta’s approach to governance: ridiculous, confusing, and contradictory. The messaging certainly doesn’t follow the powerful propaganda tenants established by previous historical dictators: it’s long-winded, poorly constructed, and has no rousing pictures to accompany it. It’s almost pathetic.
So how does the regime maintain control? The Burmese regime has all the characteristics of a totalitarian system, such as secret police, widespread censorship, armed civilian thugs, torture prisons, the atmosphere of distrust, the concentration of wealth in government hands - but there is no overarching ideological message. There is no particular reason provided by the government for the country’s incredible suffering. And the public propaganda machine, as evidenced by the picture, is ineffective.
The following are some reasons provided by Burmese individuals, for the continued rule of the generals:
Christina Fink, author of Living Silence: Burma Under Military Rule: “There are certain cultural practices that help maintain the regime. Burmese society is a hierarchical society, where obedience to authority is taught in the family, in religious institutions, in educational institutions.” Fink points out that education in Burma is based on rote memorization, and she had found that “if you ask Burmese students to paraphrase something they cannot do it.”
Kit Young, an American musician who lived for many years in Rangoon, and who founded a music school there, says that the Burmese word for deference is anade, which involves an unwillingness to make people feel uncomfortable. “You skirt, you go around things,” she says.
A teacher in Rangoon says “We can blame the religion, and we can blame the live-and-let-live attitude of the Burmese. Even people like me, unless we go out of the country from time to time to refresh our minds, we become conditioned to the suppression. We are fearful without knowing we are fearful, and we are submissive without knowing we are submissive.”
A Burmese economist says “Here the government isn’t dependent on the people, and the people aren’t dependent on the government. When there’s no electricity or water, you get it yourself.” In other words, the regime has endured because it is not distracted by an effort to provide good government - crushing the life out of the population is their only task.
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