Burmese Way to Fascism

I believe that Bertil Lintner know Burma more than the other academic around the world. He reside in Thailand and his wife is Shan. The following excerpt appeared in October 20.

If Karl Marx was right that history repeats itself first as tragedy and then as farce, Burma is still stuck in the tragedy phase. The protests and crackdown in Rangoon in recent days are reprising the doomed democracy movement of 1988. As time passes and the security forces succeed in cowing the population, the world’s outrage gives way to ineffectual responses and then resignation.
Rangoon is no “ordinary” military dictatorship, and it cannot be compared with Thailand , Indonesia , Bangladesh , Pakistan or other countries in the region which also have had spells of military rule.
They live in secluded, subsidized housing and shop for goods that are not available in ordinary stores. An army pass assures the holder of a seat on a train or an airplane, and a policeman would never dare to report him or her for violating traffic rules.
The bitter reality is that nothing is going to change as long as the military remains united and willing to gun down its own people. A younger generation of army officers, who see the need to negotiate with the pro-democracy movement, is probably the only hope. But for now, no one is aware of any “young Turks” lurking in the wings, and there are no signs of serious cracks within the ranks. But if change does come to Burma , it will in any event be because of action taken by such younger army officers, not demonstrations led by monks. The protests can, at the most, influence sections of the army to realize that there is no future in supporting the present regime. But only time will tell if that is going to happen.