Some dictators like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela or the despots in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan are fortunate to have national resources at their disposal to at least give their oppressed citizens some standard of living. But most dictators like Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Cuba’s Castro brothers and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il not only murder and subjugate their own citizens, but also lead the world’s poorest countries due to widespread corruption, sanctions and numerous other reasons. How do these tyrants stay in power so long?
Because in many cases there are one or two countries that enable these companies through foreign aid, trade or support to prop up these dictatorships and keep them running. A lone gunman in a town can be brought down if everyone hunts him down, but if he comes with a gang and has safe houses to hide it will be close to impossible to bring him to justice. Enron and MCI were made possible not by one rogue VP or CEO, but by a glut of greedy executives who didn’t care about their employees, shareholders or customers as long as they got rich at everyone else’s expense. They enabled those meltdowns to happen.
And like those executives, the world’s worst dictators crave power and control more than anything. We are compassionate and naturally expect all politicians to care about their citizens in times of natural disasters, and are shocked when it doesn’t happen (like New Orleans). So many are correctly outraged when the military dictators who rule Burma – who I’ve blogged about before – reject and stymie foreign assistance. They did not warn their citizens about the impending cyclone, or even evacuate them to higher ground. We are baffled why they would refuse visas to foreigners who want to help, or keep foreign food supplies and rescue vehicles out of the country. Why would they be indifferent to the fact that their actions will kill more of their people than the cyclone?
The answers are straightforward: Dictators on the right and left don’t care about public opinion, their citizens’ freedoms, lives or deaths, or raising the country’s standard of living. They only care about themselves. But the main reason these countries don’t collapse economically or through revolution is because there is always one or two countries enabling them. We can pass plenty of sanctions against Burma, but if an enabler like China keeps trading with them it will do little good except make the Burmese people suffer more. Ditto for Zimbabwe – as long as South African President Thabo Mbeki continues to enable Mugabe’s reign of terror it doesn’t matter. As long as China and South Africa keep cutting checks for economic aid and stand by the dictators, nothing will change. Of course, the U.S. is not alone in this – our assistance kept a dictator like the Shah of Iran and the Philippine’s Fernando Marcos in power for years. It was only after we pulled support that those governments fell, and they fell rather quickly.
Last week, China – Burma’s enabler – refused to let the UN Security Council hear a humanitarian chief detail how the Burmese junta refuses to help its people. China claims it didn’t want to politicize the issue. Russia said the same thing. Both countries make big money selling arms to the Burmese military government. If both countries dropped their support or at least twisted some arms in Burma, there might be progress. Don’t expect it to happen. Dictators don’t care what others think, except for their enablers.
Because in many cases there are one or two countries that enable these companies through foreign aid, trade or support to prop up these dictatorships and keep them running. A lone gunman in a town can be brought down if everyone hunts him down, but if he comes with a gang and has safe houses to hide it will be close to impossible to bring him to justice. Enron and MCI were made possible not by one rogue VP or CEO, but by a glut of greedy executives who didn’t care about their employees, shareholders or customers as long as they got rich at everyone else’s expense. They enabled those meltdowns to happen.
And like those executives, the world’s worst dictators crave power and control more than anything. We are compassionate and naturally expect all politicians to care about their citizens in times of natural disasters, and are shocked when it doesn’t happen (like New Orleans). So many are correctly outraged when the military dictators who rule Burma – who I’ve blogged about before – reject and stymie foreign assistance. They did not warn their citizens about the impending cyclone, or even evacuate them to higher ground. We are baffled why they would refuse visas to foreigners who want to help, or keep foreign food supplies and rescue vehicles out of the country. Why would they be indifferent to the fact that their actions will kill more of their people than the cyclone?
The answers are straightforward: Dictators on the right and left don’t care about public opinion, their citizens’ freedoms, lives or deaths, or raising the country’s standard of living. They only care about themselves. But the main reason these countries don’t collapse economically or through revolution is because there is always one or two countries enabling them. We can pass plenty of sanctions against Burma, but if an enabler like China keeps trading with them it will do little good except make the Burmese people suffer more. Ditto for Zimbabwe – as long as South African President Thabo Mbeki continues to enable Mugabe’s reign of terror it doesn’t matter. As long as China and South Africa keep cutting checks for economic aid and stand by the dictators, nothing will change. Of course, the U.S. is not alone in this – our assistance kept a dictator like the Shah of Iran and the Philippine’s Fernando Marcos in power for years. It was only after we pulled support that those governments fell, and they fell rather quickly.
Last week, China – Burma’s enabler – refused to let the UN Security Council hear a humanitarian chief detail how the Burmese junta refuses to help its people. China claims it didn’t want to politicize the issue. Russia said the same thing. Both countries make big money selling arms to the Burmese military government. If both countries dropped their support or at least twisted some arms in Burma, there might be progress. Don’t expect it to happen. Dictators don’t care what others think, except for their enablers.
More Info: A blogger on the ground in Burma.
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