SPDC'S ART OF CORRUPTING THE ADVERS

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Subject: Re: SPDC'S ART OF CORRUPTING THE ADVERSARIES

Okay people, get smart a minute will you, look, how many senators are
there, how much do they earn, you can find this information out easily
enough on the net, its public information, well, its not really that
much, so a half million here and a half million there makes a lot for
political support, not to be cynical but it is so easy to brige a
senator, in fact, you could buy half the senate and it wouldnt cost you
too much, of course, if they were for sale.....

now in france, its a different story, and in belgium, but if you study a
bit, you will see how, and its been said here and there by for example,
the beligum conseillors, of mobutu, how generous he was to the political
class in europe, who needs money to win elections, if they are going to
give him, Mobutu, the kind of support, he needs, to stay in power...

just think about it. what does dire straits say, "money for noth'in and
chicks for free..."

ds
> 
> Dear Julien,
> 
> I dont doubt that the junta generals use bribery to try to corrupt powerful foreign interests whenever they can.  But in the case of US Congressman Tony Hall, this is probably not a realistic interpretation of his political position vis-a-vis Burma.  Like Chris Sidoti of Australia, he had a negative attitude towards DASSK before he ever reached Rangoon.
> 
> A few rubies will not do it, for people like Tony Hall.  Rather, politicians of his type are beholden to people in the very large US/International NGO's (Save the Children, AmeriCares, etc.) who have a serious interest in maintaining a growing victim and refugee population to serve.
> 
> Most workers in the lower ranks of these organizations are sincere and dedicated people.  Some of the officers, too, can keep their vision of service to the poor.  But eventually their ponderous bureaucracies become controlled by administrators of limited vision and personal focus.  These people are always afraid of actually accomplishing the organization's mission, which of course would make their office, their budget, their staff, and even themselves, redundant.
> 
> I have met IRC people who see refugees not so much as suffering people, but as numbers in the budget and staffing requests they send to their head office in Geneva.  Any increase in refugee populations increases the personal importance of these bureaucrats, and any reduction diminishes their power and funds.  Even officers of the French "MSF", which won this year's Nobel Peace prize (and I see here on the border the great service they provide daily to suffering people), had unhappy things to say
> 
> 
> 
> There is a cynical element in the government/non-government public service sector, not unlike that in the private sector, which is willing to exploit any psychological weakness in a given culture in order to build its power and financial base.  And since  Americans are remarkably naive about helping others, probably because of the contradictions inherent in a society strongly premised on both Christian charity and on the institutionalization of intense individual competition, they are susceptibl
> 
> In any case, the fact that Tony Hall sees the generals as people he can work with, shows that even a virtue such as charity to the poor can become an evil practice, if the motives behind it are not pure, ie, based on true compassion and selflessness.
> 
> The Tony Hall phenomenon definitely needs to be studied and understood if  we are going to avoid this type of insidious undermining of efforts to bring independence, freedom, and democratic rule to the people of Burma, and to the world itself.  The basic fact is that the people of Burma are in a dire state is not due to any failing of their own ability of self-sufficiency, but to a totalitarian government that stays in power due in part to private sector contributions from many countries that sa
> 
> The proper response to the poverty problem in Burma is not only sanctions against the ruling junta, but also coordinated and concerted economic pressure on Japan, Singapore, China, and the rest of the opportunists who keep the poverty alive.  The sooner the root cause of poverty is removed, the faster conditions will improve on a permanent basis.
> 
> "Dont worry about feeding the Burmese poor.  Get rid of the junta, and in two or three years Burma will be feeding you."
> 
> At 07:19 PM 10/17/99 -0400, Julien Moe wrote:
> >SPDC'S ART OF CORRUPTING THE ADVERSARIES
> >*****************************************************************
> >By Julien Moe
> >16th October 1999
> >
> >SPDC may not know how to prescribe effective foreign policies that will
> >benefit the nation
> >but they do know how to corrupt the adversaries. US Congressman Tony Hall of Ohio went to Burma a few months ago to have talks with the military brass ruling the nation by force. He came back from Rangoon with a negative atttitude towards Opposition Leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party. I spoke with an experienced Burmese  expatraiate who told me that " the Burmese military brasshats know when to give gifts to their adversaries".
> >
> >" The Burmese rubies,jades and other precious stones!  Would wouldn't like them?", said the expatriate who knows the generals like his pocket.  The people inside the country are paid to inform the intelligence services.
> >Informers of the military intelligence are  ubiquitous in the business
> >districts of Rangoon. They have to report to a major who is usually in
> >charge of 3 townships. It is universally true that paying agents and
> >informers for the information they provide is routine for intelligence
> >services. As the technology of the Burmese intelligence services lacks
> >electronic serveillances, human intelligence has to be a major source of
> >information.
> >
> >Today Burma is under the military rule that has everything to do with
> >corruption in the army and the Burmese society. To corrupt the army and the adversaries is what the military brass lives by today.