India’s troubled North East is not only far from the country’s power center it also has an incredibly fragile border with Burma. Northern Burma is, if anything even more chaotic and insurgency riden than the Indian side. As the region grows in strategic importance and as India’s game of brinkmanship with China over strategic influence grows so has her forgiveness and ‘engagement’ with Burma.
This week India’s external affairs minister S. M. Krishna makes his way to Nyapiytaw, Burma’s strange administrative capital for the strangely accornymed BIMSTEC (Something to do with the Bay of Bengal) meeting, a confession is likely to be of more interest in dialogue between the two uncomfortable ‘friends’.
The confession came from the ULFA who put the record straight and confirmed what many had thought; they have bases in Burma and operate out of the country. Whilst even often belligerent and chaotic Bangladesh has been able to rid their territory of the group and detain a few key members, Burma’s near half a million strong military has been unable to.
India has offered joint training excersises, military aid and many other pleasantries but many question whether it is intentions that are arry or capability.
Burma is said to be trying to play off these two Asian giants. Both India and China are competing for gas and oil concessions and so far it seems that China is winning in terms of strategic influence. They have famously tabled less for gas fields than India and still won bids. Some argue its to do with China’s Security Council Seat which has made repeated western attempts at a resolution against Burma’s generals impossible. Others still maintain that there exists a historical memory that runs deeper.
Burmese political analyst Aung Naing Oo put two compelling historical points to me. The first was the colonial history. Britain annexed Burma in a muddled affair a lot later than most of India and despite this it became incredibly prosperous. The British imported a great deal of labour, many Tamils and Bengalis were brought in as labourers and merchants; this influx Naing Oo explained was partly viewed as a ’second occupation’. It was also run as part of British India, not as a separate entity.
The second of note is India’s prior position. Like a role model democracy India initially was heavily supportive of Burma’s democracy movement. India’s intelligence is said to have supported a number of groups including the student army the All Burma Student Democratic Front (ABSDF) who, after the protests in the early 90s were violently crushed and the election results ignored, moved into the jungle to fight. Meanwhile the democracy leader; Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was bestowed the Jawaharlal Nehru Award, which incidentally was first awarded to another Burmese, U Thant, the first Asian Secretary General of the UN, who also ended up on the wrong side of the ’senior general’.
This early Indian support for the democracy movement apparently still lives vindictively in their memory. The whiff of that western humanism and internationalism still apparently lingers on the Indian breath despite years of ‘looking east’ and counter insurgency against Burmese political dissidents.
Another, perhaps even more sinister motive for choosing China is an apparent racism that exists and can perhaps be viewed in conjunction with the first point about ‘the second occupation’. The ‘Kala’ as Burmese colloquially call Indians or people with a dark complexion have lived in Burma probably almost as long as Lord Buddha has been followed. These communities such as the Rohingya in western Burma are often subject to awful, shameless persecution from the military. The Rohingya ‘crisis’ earlier in the year prompted the consul general in Hong Kong to light heartedly dismiss them to a journalist as ‘ugly as ogres’. These communities are no doubt some part of a divide and rule tactic that the generals skillfully adapted from their colonial predecessors and added a personal touch too. Wherever it came from or whatever the issue, it prompted a racial purge in the 60’s and what little we hear from the Rohingya today it is usually of despair and torment.
It is hard to imagine Indian changing her tack anytime soon. The political imperative for competing with China is too great, this macro issue twinned with energy supplies trumps just about everything. Yet the instability flowing in seems no sign of stopping; UNODC recently highlighted India and western routes out of Burma as a growing venture for Burma’s number one entrepreneurs, drug barons.Whilst the same smuggling routes are reportedly of use to another apparent thorn in India’s side the Maoists. Like alot of things in this area much is adorned with mystery and murk, yet threatens to prompt a very Confucian ‘interesting time’
author can be reached at ja@dvb.no
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