In a post for its Asia Unbound blog, Council on Foreign Relations contributor Joshua Kurlantzick tells us that it’s possible, and even commonly thought among his peers, that, “by the end of this year, the Burmese regime is likely to put Aung San Suu Kyi back under house arrest.”
How, you might ask, could it be that they could get away with this?
Kurlantzick writes: “Having successfully had an election – albeit a highly flawed one – last fall, the regime, most Burmese analysts say, appears to be confident that the election provides enough cover of legitimacy to allow Asian nations, and some European ones, to work more closely with and invest in Burma.”
All the more reason to make sure that we the public — especially those of us who have means to spread information online, a privilege Suu Kyi herself is only now beginning to enjoy — remain aware of developments in this story. (One has only to think of the role social media and blogging have been playing in the Middle East to appreciate the potential here.)
To stay aware with the doings in Burma, you might want to start with the websites of US Campaign for Burma or the new website from Burma’s National League for Democracy. (Or see what Kurlantzick and his colleagues write up at the CFR website. Speaking of which, you can read his full post here.)
If you’d like to recommend a way to keep up to date with or otherwise support the idea of true freedom in Burma, please leave it in the comments below.
Really, how could you get away with quoting the Council on Foreign Relations with no shame whatsoever? The encirclement of China with hostile regimes will never attain the spiritual patina you dream of.