There’s an old joke “call me what you want, just don’t call me late for dinner” that sadly seems to reflect reality in Burma/Myanmar these days, which is facing a food crisis. Like Zimbabwe, Burma used to export foodstuff to its neighbors; now it faces shortages. In a country where most people subsist on less than $1/day, a bowl of noodles costs about 80 cents. Four months ago, price hikes triggered a wave of protests that elicited a crackdown that transfixed the world. After the world’s attention shifted from the immediate crisis, however, little else improved. There’s more pre-crackdown ‘normalcy’ on the street, but many activists and monks remain underground or ‘disappeared’, according to recent Al Jazeera coverage. One reporter managed to get someone on the street to comment on the situation: “The business is very slow so the people are suffering. We also feel depressed. Our spirits are a little down.” Perhaps a bit of an understatement. The conclusion of the story certainly is depressing: Although the generals have put forward some economic measures as part of a clearly misnamed “Roadmap to Democracy” initiative, people in Yangon/Rangoon say they still have hope, if not for democracy then at least for a government that does not starve them to death.
Some hope.
In his earlier post on Making Democracy Deliver for the Poor Kim Bettcher talks about how governments can better deliver for the poor: they can increase opportunities, help the private sector flourish, provide health and education, etc. The first “possible answer” he lists, however, I would argue is probably the first and foremost: “governments should listen more to what poor people want. For this to happen, officials must be held accountable for delivering on their promises. Further, there should be expanded avenues for participation in policymaking and better representation of the poor.”
That is precisely what Burma lacks, though. If the government doesn’t care to hear the opinions of its people, what incentive does it have to recognize, let alone rectify, the starvation poverty that is gripping them? If it’s willing to jail, beat, ‘disappear’ or kill those who become vocal about the situation of the people, why would it save them from the situation it has created?
Burma’s hope that the government may not starve them may soon lie in tatters beside its hope for democracy.
Published Date: December 19, 2007