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We don’t believe there should be two-way trade between Australia and Burma at all … but there certainly shouldn’t be two-way trade in sensitive military equipment such as this…
– Senator Scott Ludlam (Greens – Western Australia), quoted in Arkar Moe, “Australian Senator Criticizes Exports to Burma”, The Irrawaddy, 6 January 2009. The Senator is referring to this recent Sydney Morning Herald report. Further coverage of the Burmese radios issue is available here, here and here.
In Burma mutual benefit from trade unfortunately doesn’t follow quite the same path as elsewhere mainly due to a virtual monopoly on economic activity and the arbitrary nature of governance by the junta. And if influence and leverage between state players is what’s hoped for, perhaps China’s pre-eminence is undesirable, since at least we can work on the basis that the West is the lesser of two evils if we are to establish proper comprador capitalism. It doesn’t however follow that Western influence will necessarily neuter either the regime’s intolerance to dissent or its virulence in the repression. It could simply end up watering the proverbial poison plant.
It is almost certainly a balancing act as far as the junta is concerned, quite happy to manipulate both East and West to suit its own agenda in maitaining a grip, by fair means or foul, on the nation it plans to continue to exploit for the benefit of the entrenched military ruling class. So long as it profits someone somewhere, the junta is a good partner they can do business with.
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