ABSTRACT
At the end of the day, the opposition in Burma has to face the realities of life. The one instrument of effective government there is the army – the civil service is not effective, the police are part of the army . . . [Aung San Suu Kyi] wins Nobel peace prizes – a shining star. But if she was given power in Burma tomorrow she would have to depend on the army, because there is no other instrument. It would take 10 years for the present government to be defeated, and then they would have to form a new army. . . . One-track minds believe they can bring about Utopia, by human rights, by democracy. Once upon a time, it was unilateral nuclear disarmament or whatever. All believe they have the answer to the world’s problems. But the world’s problems are much more complex than that. We in South-east Asia know what our problems are.
