The Myanmar Junta needs to learn that it isn’t 1988 still.
You have no doubt heard about the pro-democracy protests in Myanmar over the past week or so and the resulting government crackdown on the protests.
The flood of information out of the country was staggering in the beginning, and the government was faced with enormous amounts of information flowing out of the country. They tried to stop it by releasing their own propaganda and attempting to slow the spread of information from the country, but protesters weren’t so easily dissuaded and information continued to leak out.
In response the Junta cut off all internet access, cutting landlines and blocking cell phone access to the country, but still people are able to get information out—only a trickle, but far more than repressed peoples have been able to do in the past.
The Junta is full of old men, and their methods are showing their age. It isn’t 1988: you can’t just sweep aside problems “privately” anymore. One of the biggest benefits of the modern world is that even the repressed can’t be repressed.