Time for world to back Myanmar’s people

The rights of Myanmar’s people are so trampled that they are not even allowed to object to hefty petrol price rises foisted on them last week without announcement or explanation by the military regime. Peaceful protests have been broken up with arrests and beatings, invalidating repeated claims by the junta that it is dedicated to restoring democracy.

Such actions suggest a disregard by the military for the people it claims to govern. If it was truly working towards giving citizens a voice, as it says a constitution being drafted by a national convention will do, it would not so unashamedly abuse its authority.

Fear of retribution makes protests in Myanmar rare, despite grinding poverty, a lack of basic liberties and rampant corruption. But the increases of up to 500 per cent on August 15 have caused such increased hardship through knock-on fare and food price rises that some citizens have ignored the risks and taken to the streets.

They have been led by pro-democracy advocates, but the cause of the protests is not a call for democracy: rather, it is about survival.

Similar circumstances - a series of rises in the price of rice, and a decree that some banknote denominations had no value - led to protests headed by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi that were brutally crushed in 1988. But whereas the struggle of the country’s people was little noticed then, the plight of Ms Suu Kyi and at least 1,100 of her supporters either under house arrest or in prison is now being closely watched around the world.

The US and European governments have for a decade been pushing the junta to change its ways through sanctions. Southeast Asian nations are increasing pressure, but China and India continue to prop up the regime with trade and financial support.

It is time the world united through the UN to let the military know that its 45-year mismanagement of the nation is no longer tolerated. When a government claims to be working for democracy, yet arrests people walking along a street to say they cannot afford price rises, a gap clearly exists between truth and reality.

The world’s leaders have to join hands and back Myanmar’s downtrodden people with an unequivocal and lasting response.