What do you feel is important for our campus community to learn and understand about your country?
Whenever someone hears the country named Myanmar, he or she just thinks of it as one of the world's poorest and underdeveloped nations; everyone concludes with ease that it is the result of being governed by the military junta. I think there are many reasons behind Myanmar being impoverished and underdeveloped. After the scandal in 1988, people have been starting to ask for democracy although they do not meet the basics requirements to nurture democratic values and norms and more, they do not know the true essence of democracy. However, it is sad to see that today's people of Myanmar are demanding democracy while most of them do not try to build the conditions favorable to democracy: social capital and economic prosperity.
When tracing the past.it is obvious that it had not faced the "Age of Enlightenment" and "Industrial Revolution" although other countries had. The only things it got were "Pseudo-industrialization" and "Constitutional Governance" from British Empire; therefore, it now does not have the ability to nurture the middle class which is the engine of the development of nations in today's world. Moreover, Myanmar won independence in 1948 while its people were not mature enough to sustain independence and this unpreparedness led to the civil war which cost thousands of people their lives. After that incident, the country closed its doors and executed "Burmese Socialist Program" and that led the country to fell into the poverty trap which is still thriving in Myanmar.
Today, many people believe that Myanmar can end its suffering when it practices democracy by changing governments. However, I think Myanmar cannot gain democracy just by changing governments without the mature civic-education level which can sustain democracy efficiently. Without the maturity of the people, a nation does not deserve to get democracy and even if it gets, it can be the downfall of that nation, much like Malawi, Rwanda. Most importantly, an immature public can create "elected autocrats" who will be dangerous to both their host countries and the world. To build a democratic nation is easier said than done. Francis Fukuyama wrote about this in his book named "Great Disruption". In that book he said,
"American democracy and its system of limited government worked only
because Americans were so adept at forming associations for both civil and political purposes. The ability to, in effect, self-organize not only meant that the government did not have to impose order in a hierarchical, top down manner; civil association was also a "school of self-government" that taught people co-operative habits they would carry over with them to public life. Without social capital, there could be no civil society, and that without civil society, there should be no successful democracy."
Therefore, it will be a waste of time to demand democracy without the maturity to perform self-organization in Myanmar's people.
In addition, there can be no democracy without economic prosperity either. Myanmar has been situated between the two potential powers of 21st century: India and China, so this can create trade opportunities with those countries in order to increase GDP, but most people are still moaning about democracy without looking at those opportunities. Furthermore, there are great hindrances to democracy in Myanmar; they are the inefficiency of institutions and corruption in bank system; without strong institutions and reliable bank systems no country can be able to compete with other nations in international free-market system. Moreover, the market in Myanmar is overwhelmed by crony capitalism and nepotism and these result to the country's economic downfall. If the people of Myanmar want democracy, they should try to improve the country's economic factors first; no stable democracy can occur with its moribund economy.
Giving democracy to a nation cannot change it to become a prosperous and developed one overnight. We have to show ourselves that we deserve democracy by building conditions favorable
for democracy and we need young students (educated from west) who will be able to build those conditions, however there is a great deterrent that most of the students from Myanmar somehow need financial assistance to be able to join foreign institutions. Moreover, today's politicians in Myanmar and governments from western countries are trapped in misconceptions that "our enemies are fundamentally different from us". They used to think that Military Government is their enemy and always trying to topple it down by imposing sanctions on Myanmar. However, these sanctions do not work on bringing democracy to Myanmar and just making us (Myanmar people) become poorer. Hopefully, Obama's administration is now using progressive methods to bring democracy in Myanmar and I feel helping to build conditions favorable to democracy is more important than demanding democracy with sudden government changes for Myanmar.
Whenever someone hears the country named Myanmar, he or she just thinks of it as one of the world's poorest and underdeveloped nations; everyone concludes with ease that it is the result of being governed by the military junta. I think there are many reasons behind Myanmar being impoverished and underdeveloped. After the scandal in 1988, people have been starting to ask for democracy although they do not meet the basics requirements to nurture democratic values and norms and more, they do not know the true essence of democracy. However, it is sad to see that today's people of Myanmar are demanding democracy while most of them do not try to build the conditions favorable to democracy: social capital and economic prosperity.
When tracing the past.it is obvious that it had not faced the "Age of Enlightenment" and "Industrial Revolution" although other countries had. The only things it got were "Pseudo-industrialization" and "Constitutional Governance" from British Empire; therefore, it now does not have the ability to nurture the middle class which is the engine of the development of nations in today's world. Moreover, Myanmar won independence in 1948 while its people were not mature enough to sustain independence and this unpreparedness led to the civil war which cost thousands of people their lives. After that incident, the country closed its doors and executed "Burmese Socialist Program" and that led the country to fell into the poverty trap which is still thriving in Myanmar.
Today, many people believe that Myanmar can end its suffering when it practices democracy by changing governments. However, I think Myanmar cannot gain democracy just by changing governments without the mature civic-education level which can sustain democracy efficiently. Without the maturity of the people, a nation does not deserve to get democracy and even if it gets, it can be the downfall of that nation, much like Malawi, Rwanda. Most importantly, an immature public can create "elected autocrats" who will be dangerous to both their host countries and the world. To build a democratic nation is easier said than done. Francis Fukuyama wrote about this in his book named "Great Disruption". In that book he said,
"American democracy and its system of limited government worked only
because Americans were so adept at forming associations for both civil and political purposes. The ability to, in effect, self-organize not only meant that the government did not have to impose order in a hierarchical, top down manner; civil association was also a "school of self-government" that taught people co-operative habits they would carry over with them to public life. Without social capital, there could be no civil society, and that without civil society, there should be no successful democracy."
Therefore, it will be a waste of time to demand democracy without the maturity to perform self-organization in Myanmar's people.
In addition, there can be no democracy without economic prosperity either. Myanmar has been situated between the two potential powers of 21st century: India and China, so this can create trade opportunities with those countries in order to increase GDP, but most people are still moaning about democracy without looking at those opportunities. Furthermore, there are great hindrances to democracy in Myanmar; they are the inefficiency of institutions and corruption in bank system; without strong institutions and reliable bank systems no country can be able to compete with other nations in international free-market system. Moreover, the market in Myanmar is overwhelmed by crony capitalism and nepotism and these result to the country's economic downfall. If the people of Myanmar want democracy, they should try to improve the country's economic factors first; no stable democracy can occur with its moribund economy.
Giving democracy to a nation cannot change it to become a prosperous and developed one overnight. We have to show ourselves that we deserve democracy by building conditions favorable
for democracy and we need young students (educated from west) who will be able to build those conditions, however there is a great deterrent that most of the students from Myanmar somehow need financial assistance to be able to join foreign institutions. Moreover, today's politicians in Myanmar and governments from western countries are trapped in misconceptions that "our enemies are fundamentally different from us". They used to think that Military Government is their enemy and always trying to topple it down by imposing sanctions on Myanmar. However, these sanctions do not work on bringing democracy to Myanmar and just making us (Myanmar people) become poorer. Hopefully, Obama's administration is now using progressive methods to bring democracy in Myanmar and I feel helping to build conditions favorable to democracy is more important than demanding democracy with sudden government changes for Myanmar.
