Short Essay Assignment
After reading the Larkin text, I agree that the military government of Burma has been a sort of ‘reflection’ of the British colonial government that preceded it. According to Emma Larkin, forty years of dictatorship has been similar to the British colonial government. One percent of the 50 million Burmese population are in the army. Along with these, there are 18 million members if the Union Solidarity and Development Association which are promised better educational and employment opportunities by helping the military in its ruling. And from the 30 million people remaining, there are also a secret ratio of people who work as informer for the intelligence agencies. All these statistics can be matched with the British …show more content…
The concept of fear which Aung San Suu Kyi chose to title her most important book Freedom from Fear is one of primary tools used by the military government. The Burmese government utilizes fear as a means of controlling the populace by infecting fear in them. Fear of torturing them if they do anything or participate in any activity against the state. It does not matter if they are only fighting for their rights, the legality of any action id to be judged by the military which can have them jailed. Therefore people live in the environment of fear and death. The second tool used is the power of panopticon/surveillance. As described in the first question, an unknown ratio of people from 30 million are deployed for this purpose and whether the informers are around or not, the people are afraid to condemn any government action due to the horrific consequences. Another tool has been education and health facilities. These are the basic human rights of people around the world and obviously people want good future for their family. But these are only available to those who become a part of military and help the government in its unjust interests. One of the ‘tools’ the post-colonial government of Burma has used to exercise power over the people of Burma is by depriving them of raising their voice. They are restricted to spread the message to foreign journalists and using any forum for their
After reading the Larkin text, I agree that the military government of Burma has been a sort of ‘reflection’ of the British colonial government that preceded it. According to Emma Larkin, forty years of dictatorship has been similar to the British colonial government. One percent of the 50 million Burmese population are in the army. Along with these, there are 18 million members if the Union Solidarity and Development Association which are promised better educational and employment opportunities by helping the military in its ruling. And from the 30 million people remaining, there are also a secret ratio of people who work as informer for the intelligence agencies. All these statistics can be matched with the British …show more content…
The concept of fear which Aung San Suu Kyi chose to title her most important book Freedom from Fear is one of primary tools used by the military government. The Burmese government utilizes fear as a means of controlling the populace by infecting fear in them. Fear of torturing them if they do anything or participate in any activity against the state. It does not matter if they are only fighting for their rights, the legality of any action id to be judged by the military which can have them jailed. Therefore people live in the environment of fear and death. The second tool used is the power of panopticon/surveillance. As described in the first question, an unknown ratio of people from 30 million are deployed for this purpose and whether the informers are around or not, the people are afraid to condemn any government action due to the horrific consequences. Another tool has been education and health facilities. These are the basic human rights of people around the world and obviously people want good future for their family. But these are only available to those who become a part of military and help the government in its unjust interests. One of the ‘tools’ the post-colonial government of Burma has used to exercise power over the people of Burma is by depriving them of raising their voice. They are restricted to spread the message to foreign journalists and using any forum for their