Simon Tisdall in the Guardian – The world’s bad guys are winning. Is anyone going to stand up to them?
Blame Joe Biden for not stepping in more quickly, or Donald Trump for encouraging authoritarian rulers. Blame Barack Obama for lifting sanctions. Easier still, blame China for propping up a military junta and putting profit before people.
The International Court of Justice warned of ongoing genocide, but nobody was saved. UN security council members argued endlessly about what to do. The finger of blame also points at Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel heroine turned sellout.
Yet while recriminations over last week’s coup in Myanmar may be inevitable, they are beside the point. The issue now is what is the international community going to do about it? The quick answer, based on recent precedents, is not a lot.
This dilemma not only applies to Myanmar. Across the world, to put it crudely, the bad guys are winning. The coup is another landmark in what David Miliband, a former UK foreign secretary, calls the “age of impunity”.
A Tisdall joke, perhaps? Every time the west intervenes somewhere, the Guardian is at the forefront of those bemoaning the neo-colonialism, the neo-imperialism, and the just downright neo-nastiness of the interference. It seems a bit rich now to start complaining because no one wants to intervene any more.
Impunity is spreading, non-accountability goes viral. Authoritarianism is the new normal. According to the latest Economist survey, only 8.4% of the world’s population live in a fully functioning democracy, while more than a third live under authoritarian rule – and it’s getting worse.
Even when western politicians try hard to induce dictators and coup-leaders to mend their ways, they usually end up fighting a losing battle. Today’s question is not “who lost Myanmar?” It’s “has the west lost?”
If we in the west have lost – if we do live now in the "age of impunity" – the Guardian and its writers like Simon Tisdall should take at least some of the credit. It's what they've always wanted, after all.
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