Change in Burma

Burma's ruling military junta created a new capital (I forgot the name, it's consonant-heavy) in the middle of the country away from Rangoon, or Yangon which is in the south.

The government is under intense pressure not to crackdown on the protesting monks who have been staging public protests for the past couple of weeks.

By moving the capital to some remote location, the junta is clearly retreating to a secure fortress. To the generals, this is a tactical move: there's no way barefoot monks could storm critical government offices when the new capital where they have chosen to be is located so far away.

Unfortunately, this is also a chink in the armor, a signal that the military is not totally in control of the country. Otherwise, why make the sudden decision to move the capital to I-can't-remember-the-name?

Washington sees the opportunity for change and in fact, Bush have announced new sanctions to push the generals into a corner.

Increasingly, countries are pressing China to intervene, knowing fully well that Beijing cannot afford to waste the opportunity to stabilize the region ahead of the Olympics. In addition, China is Burma's biggest trade partner. Since the rest of the world refuses to do business with Burma, China is Burma's remaining lifeline. And Beijing and Washington are both aware of this.

Burma is a pariah state, shunned by many governments for suppressing human rights and running the country with iron fists. The generals do not really care about world opinion. They have kept opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate, in house arrest for like, a decade now. Unfortunately, with China breathing heavily behind their backs, the generals can't possibly strike the helpless monks.

The situation is still unravelling, but I think the Burmese have had enough and they simply want the same rights guaranteed under any decent, democratic society.