There is something pathetic about world governance. This is the only explanation for the continuing murders in Myanmar.
Yes, as the world sleeps, the junta kills. Powerful nations, meaning most of the West, only get interested in stopping murder and mayhem if it is in their interest. Right now the West's interest is focused on Ukraine. True, Ukraine needs help. So does Myanmar.
The West and the rest, which make up the international community, are well-equipped to handle both. Sadly, it is on a pick-and-choose mission. Many nations in the West and a fair few in the East are beginning to lose the meaning of what it is to be human. If they were human enough, Myanmar wouldn't continue to be the killing field it is.
And it is not a new story. The army there has been killing ethnic minorities for the longest time. The genocide of the Rohingya was the most blatant. It was so blatant that the usually quiet Malaysia had to condemn Myanmar. It was one of the few in the region to be moved enough to condemn the junta's actions.
Even a few Asean partners watched in silence as the junta's army went on a murderous rampage. The Philippines, which was chairing an Asean session then, even went to the extent of excising Malaysia's condemnation out of the joint communique. Any surprise murder and mayhem are continuing in Myanmar? A united Asean could have ended the coup early, but the 10-member regional bloc sees most things in 10 different ways. Issues within a country or between countries can never be solved in these many ways of seeing. Not every road leads to the same destination.
The division within Asean is perhaps a reflection of what's happening around the world, one which acts based on colour and creed. The war in Ukraine exposed this world of shame to the rest of humanity, a world that saves only blonde, blue-eyed people. It is not the fault of the Ukrainians. They were attacked. They needed saving. It was the fault of other blonde and blue-eyed people from the West, who wanted only to save their kind.
There are plenty of others who need saving, especially the ones who are escaping conflicts, which today are the result of past geopolitical games of the West. Western governments aren't the only ones promoting colour-creed thinking. The media and think tanks on both sides of the Atlantic are busy crowding out massacres in Syria, Palestine, Yemen and Myanmar.
Anyone reading the Western dailies or weeklies may be excused for thinking that Ukraine is the only place where people are being killed. The West is sending a signal: it is not interested in the rest. Because they neither share their colour nor their creed. But can Asia do without the West? It can, but it just doesn't want to. Take Myanmar again.
China can easily put Myanmar together again given its heft, but because of economic and geopolitical interests, it is not doing so. But Beijing's support for Myanmar's regime became public when it opposed an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation-sponsored United Nations resolution calling for the world body to act against the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.
Can we blame the West for being uninterested in solving problems in the East, when the East itself is unwilling to do so?