By M Zarni
Myanmar Generals and Their 8 Strategic Objectives behind Racism
Why does Myanmar Generals openly encourage Islamophobia?
Myanmar Military involves in using racism against Muslims and Islam to accomplish the following objectives, besides being themselves deeply racist:
1) to permanently disable NLD from governing the country: conflicts and societal instability serve the military’s strategic interests while undermining the NLD’s ability to push for reforms;
2) to keep in tact the military’s long-entrenched primacy and final say on the country’s affairs;
3) to enable the public to take their popular frustration, anger and discontent living in a deeply impoverished and un-just social order out on the vulnerable groups, which have long been subjects of disdain, disrespect and “Buddhist” mainstream racism;
4) to push the Burmese military on to the powerful – if failing and racist – western bandwagon of “global war on terror”;
5) to stunt the spread of human rights and democratic/liberal discourses within the society at large;
6) to remake the conservative ill- or little-educated orthodox Buddhist Order from one of the military’s main opposition social force into a powerful racist instrument against religious minorities;
7) to deflect attention from the economic plunder of the country by the Burmese generals, their families and cronies; and last but not least;
8) to prevent the development of a powerful, democratizing, inclusive society with mutually dependent, diverse ethnic and religious communities.
8 january 2017