Unintended Witness to the Truth

Patterns of Oppression

Emma Larkin, in her book Finding George Orwell in Burma [New York: Penguin Books, 2011] describes how the regime of state censorship applies in Myanmar.  She records a conversation with a printer and publisher in which he describes how the Press Registration and Security Department ("PRSD") operates.

The PRSD is a veritable army of "scrutinizers" headed by members of the Military Intelligence.  It has the awesome task of searching through every single printed item--whether school textbook, magazine, calendar or song lyrics--for a word, a sentence, a picture which might be considered anti-government.  Ko Ye picked up a copy of a lifestyle magazine that was lying of the desk.  Its rough, grey pages were filled with short stories, articles about moves, and profiles of popular singers.  He flicked through the magazine and showed me where censors had scrawled with a pink highlighter across certain paragraphs or, as was the case on some pages, whole articles.  Scribbled alongside each scrawl was the single word "hpyoke" or "remove".

"Why these particular pages?" I asked.


"I really don't know," he replied.  "I don't think even the people at the censorship board know why any more."  The PRSD, he explained, has eleven broad rules outlining what subjects cannot be written about.  The rules are impossibly vague.  Among other things, they forbid:

*anything "detrimental to the ideology of the state";

*anything which might be "harmful to security, the rule of law, peace and public order";

*any "incorrect ideas" and "opinions which do not accord with the times";

*any descriptions which, though factually correct, are "unsuitable because of the time or the circumstances of their writing".

"They never tell us exactly why something is banned," said Ko Ye.  "We just have to guess."  [Ibid., p.124f.]

Thus, the attempt is made to control every thought--and therefore every word and act of every subject.  The Golden Kingdom is deeply Buddhist: therefore the state is not anti-religious.  The government has from time to time persecuted Buddhist monks, but only to stamp out their opposition to various government policies.  The military leaders, however, actively participate in Buddhist rituals surrounding life and death.  The Golden Kingdom is also Asian: oriental not occidental.  It has a distinct, long and storied history.  It is unique in many ways.

Yet the actual forms, techniques, rules, and administration of the Myanmar totalitarian military regime are virtually exactly the same as those documented in Soviet Russia, the Eastern Bloc, North Korea, and Mao's China--all totalitarian regimes, in fact, east and west, north and south.  The animating ideology may vary widely, the cultural and historical background be quite diverse--but the techniques and patterns of totalitarian rule are so similar they can all be called doppelgangers.  Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon, or George Orwell's 1984 provide an accurate description of what takes place in all such regimes.

When men would be as god, they become possessed by evil spirits.  When regimes would be as god, they become like the Father of Lies.  The universal and consistent fruit of totalitarian regimes throughout human history provides compelling evidence for the existence of the Satan.  It also provides uncanny testimony to the being of God, the Father of Lights.