Crimson Tide

Here are some of my reactions to events in Burma.

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The Bangkok Pundit is one of several which has noticed the superficial resemblance between the Buddhist-monk led opposition to the regime in Myanmar and the 1986 Philippine "People's Power" movement which toppled Ferdinand Marcos.

This reminds me of the People's Power movement against Marcos in 1986 and the key role that senior members of the Catholic Church played. It is one thing to tell a solider to kill a civilian, but it is completely different to tell them to a monk or a nun/priest in a deeply religious country. There would also likely be a strong reaction in Thailand to the killing of any monks by the Burmese military.

Not to go over the top with analogies with the People's Power movement, but there were two key events at that time (1) the very public defections of 2 key Marcos supporters/advisers Enrile and Ramos which weakened the powers of the state over the citizenry, and (2) the US providing Marcos with an opportunity for a clean break.

Read the rest at Pajamas Media. Nothing follows.