Mao’s heirs dominate Burma

 

_ By Taisamyone

Burma’s early independence movement was greatly influenced by socialist and Marxist ideals, and led to the formation of many socialist and communist political parties in the early days of the fight for independence and the parliamentary democracy period.  Unfortunately for Burma and the rest of the world, the international communist movement became dominated by Stalin and his evil scheming.  Whilst outwardly portraying themselves as liberators of the world’s masses, Stalin’s thugs undertook a reign of terror wherever they took control – far from liberation, people who came under communist domination became virtual slaves.  Mao understood early on that Stalin was in control and manipulated the Chinese Communist Party to come within Stalin’s sphere of influence – he wanted Russian help in defeating his powerful nationalist foes.  One of his most powerful weapons was psychological warfare and propaganda – the truth and socialist ideology were manipulated and distorted to show Mao in a good light – especially as far as Stalin was to see events.  When Mao came to power in China in 1949, he sought initially to create his influence over his direct neighbours, despite the Soviet plans to dominate all communist regimes worldwide.  Along with Stalin, Mao harboured desires to extend the communist revolution to the whole world, and was aiming to take a key role in leadership.  Stalin’s death and the revisionist’s line of the 1950s gave Mao the freedom to expand his influence even more – his plan was to rule the world. 

Mao’s 26 years of misrule were characterised by terror, famine, torture and state-slavery – Mao used the people as food generators so that he could export grain, pork and other foodstuffs to Russia and East Europe in exchange for technology and military industrialisation.  His agricultural policy produced famines that killed 10’s of millions – his absurd industrialisation policy denuded the country of trees, wooden houses and anything that would burn in makeshift iron foundries that mostly produced useless pig-iron – just to boost national statistics for showing China’s industrial progress to the rest of the world.  Mao continued his reign of terror by purging anyone who spoke against his authority or his decisions – even though his rule was ruining China.  During his rule of China it is estimated that over 70million people died as a result of his policies or directly as  a result of his terror tactics against political opponents.  While China’s propaganda machine was churning out over-inflated production figures and scenes of joyful workers in state communes which the outside world took at face value or with just a pinch of salt, the people of China were living in poverty and misery, and worse of all fear and terror of Mao’s policies. 

The so-called ‘Cultural Revolution’ (which destroyed anything that sane people call culture) was begun to promote Maoism (which is nothing but a collection of Mao’s snappy political slogans) and ensure that Mao kept his iron grip on power.  Even Mao’s closest government aides (Chou En-lai, Peng De-huai, Liu Shao-chi) were subjected to difficult ‘struggle’ sessions of self-criticism and persecution.  The driving force of this time were school and college students – the most ferocious and bloodthirsty denouncers and organisers rose to lead the gangs of vicious thugs in persecuting and torturing anyone and everyone – if you don’t shout Mao’s glory loud enough you could be suspected of being a ‘rightist’ or whatever name the latest purge called for.  These leaders became CCP party officials and leaders, rising through the ranks.  As with the ‘cultural revolution’ days, adherence to party policy and a blind obedience to orders irrespective of any compassion, or even common sense, prevailed as the measure of a good party member.  If we ever wondered what happened to those revolutionary thugs, we are finding out now – they have come of age after 40 years as the leaders of the CCP and as the present government leaders of China.  They lead China on its relentless pursuit, not of revolutionary goals, but of a capitalist economy.  Mao’s desire for world domination is being followed not militarily but through economic dominance; first of the surrounding region (North Korea, Burma) and then further afield (China is already wooing errant African states Sudan and Zimbabwe).  With one fifth of the world’s population, China should take a significant role in world politics, but they don’t have the background in democracy, freedom and human rights that the world expects of a major nation.  The objectives of China’s present leaders are pursued with the same callous calculating drive for power that drove Mao and his brutal ‘Red Guards’ 40 years ago.

The Communist Party of Burma (CPB) followed Mao’s hard-line policy and adopted his terrorizing purges to the extreme.  The CPB sought to impose a Stalinist/Maoist regime on Burma which didn’t match the needs of the country, or the temperament of its diverse peoples.  Many rebels joined the CPB because they got more guns and ammunition and regular food and supplies than from the self-supporting freedom fighters.  When the money dried up after Mao’s death, so the mutinies in the CPB turned against an abhorrent ideology and towards a struggle for recognition of the ethnic issues and domestic problems that face Burma. 

For further information

¨       Mao: The Unknown Story  - Jung Chang & Jon Halliday, 2005

¨       Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong

¨       Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity - Martin Smith, 1991, 1999

¨       China's thumb in every Burmese pie

¨       Whither Human Rights in China?

¨       UN aims to restart Burma dialogue

¨       Be prepared to deal with dictators

¨       Burma: EU's Inconsistent Policy Falls Flat at ASEM Meeting

¨       Getting to the Roots of Burma’s Latest Timber Trade