South Africa versus Burma

As a visitor, I felt safer in Burma than I do in South Africa.

It is odd comparing the two countries.

South Africa is supposed to be the “better” of the two countries. South Africa is one of the world’s most important emerging economies, and the largest in all of Africa. The country is a democracy with outstanding levels of enfranchisement. It is the “Rainbow Nation,” the land where people of all colors, tribes, and religions strive to live together in harmony. South Africa is the standard bearer and the shining light to the rest of Africa. And with World Cup 2010 fast approaching South Africa wants to transform itself into a cosmopolitan hub of the southern hemisphere to rival Australia. South Africa is supposed to be a land of opportunity.

Meanwhile Burma is the most repressive country in the world. They are at least half a century behind economically, and politically there is little hope of progress. Burma awards its most distinguished citizen—Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung Sun Suu Kyi—with decades of confinement either under house arrest or (at present) imprisonment.

But the great irony is that as a visitor I feel much safer in Burma. In Burma the military government is so omnipresent and brutal that very few people risk overtly breaking the law. In addition it feels like there is a natural friendliness inherent in the Burmese culture, perhaps inspired by peaceful teachings of Buddhism. Despite oppression, people seem to take care of each other, and there is very little crime. Meanwhile in South Africa every single house is surrounded by high walls and barbed wire. Very few places are safe to walk at night. It is never wise to talk on a cell phone while out in the open, lest someone come to stab you and take the phone from you.

In Burma, the oppressive junta regime claims the cause of peace and stability as the source of its legitimacy. Sometimes outsiders overlook the fact that there are many different ethnicities living in Burma with long and deep-seated hatreds towards each other. The junta claims that if there were no military rule, the country would fall into anarchy and strife along ethnic lines. Unfortunately they’re probably right. Meanwhile South Africa enjoys fully-enfranchised democracy, a democracy that only came about because of the sometimes violent actions of the African National Congress (ANC), the party that overthrew the apartheid regime and still has control over the country. In the minds of many South Africans there is something noble about the use of violence for the cause of social justice.

So crime runs rampant in South Africa, and the government is not strong enough to stop it. In Burma the government is so strong that there is little crime to be afraid of, but there is also little freedom.

It’s as if we’re forced to choose: peace or freedom?