Myanmar Christians

The recent development in Myanmar where the Buddhist monks hit the streets peaked my interest about the country. Knowing that our media is "filtered" most of the time, hit the internet and focused on christians in Myanmar.

Taken from Christianity Today (www.christianitytoday.com):

"A group of Chin and Kachin activists met with U.S. officials in Washington in February. Their reports included the rape of Chin and Kachin Christians, forced shutdown of churches, and the taking of children from their Christian parents, placing them in Buddhist monasteries to become novice monks under the false pretense of ensuring a good education. Also, government soldiers are driving thousands of minority Christians from their villages. Those hiding from their own government are called Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)."

and the most interesting part is this:

"Despite persecution, the church is growing approximately 5 percent a year among Protestants and independents."

There are many other articles online which many of you can refer to. Just to list three:

1. persecution.org - Excellant overview of current political and religious status
2. biblesociety.org - pretty old article but a good short history in Chriatianity in Myanmar
3. wikipedia - a worldview of Myanmar and it's current policies

If I remember correctly, Malaysia was one of the STRONGEST ADVOCATES to allow Myanmar's entry to the ASEAN in 1997.

Since the military junta came to power in 1962, there were strings of reported incidents of political abuses, anti democratic movement, racial segregation, horrible human rights record, second largest opium producer in the world! (read Golden Triangle), and... and... and... in the recent TI Transparency Perception Index ranked as the most corrupted country in the world.
I'm listing this not as a basis to "judge" the country (I'm juz a helpless fry...) but my question is
Why did we turn a blind eye and admit Burma into ASEAN?. Were there any indicators that the country's policies will change? It denounced the results of a free election in 1990 and the military continued holding power to this day?

Under the guise of "non-interferance" we freely advocate the entry of this nation to be in the same league as us. Maybe could it be the following reasons:

1. Money. Money. Money. (Myanmar has quite a huge reserve of oil and gas)
2. Or is it the case of realization that, there are similarities????... how can we question the speck in the eye of a neighbor but a plank in the own eye?

I admit that in reality and economic wise, these burmese people are suffering much more than us over here, but based on principles are there similarities? Rather than listing down the similarities and be categorized as a "political blog" you do your own thinking la.

Until then do spare sometime to pray for the Christians over in Myanmar and for us as a nation...

Shalom...