Sometimes, the politically incorrect way seems like the only way

Reading and hearing about how aid is NOT making its way to the people who need it most in Burma set me off on a tirade. I will not and do not advise donating money or any form of aid to Burma. I know the devastating news of the cyclone hit us bad. I know many Burmese had died and are dying. However, I feel that it will do nothing more than to make us feel less guilty about our own bourgeois capitalist comfort in Singapore. The aid and the money will only end up lining the pockets of the military junta who does not seem to care about its people, only about reinstating and hanging onto its unreasonable power in the country.

Yes - I've also read that some money and aid do get past. Perhaps 30% of whatever was sent there. Is that enough? Is that a solution to a problem exacerbated exponentially by natural disaster? I do not think so. As I grow older, I also begin to see how futile it is to give aid or attempt to save just one or a few persons - it has stopped mattering if we can save or make the life of just one person better. What about the gazillion others suffering?

We must do something to help. But it seems like the only way we can help, is helping the enemy instead of the people.

Perhaps, this is the time for ASEAN to step in and stop its gutless attitude of non-interference. What is the point of being a community if part of your community is dying, battered and bashed? Why work and shake hands with a military junta who will not listen? Why talk about economic integration and community when there is a regime next to you that obviously goes against the values of humanity?

This is not about the respect of cultures and sovereignty. We should respect cultures and governments that the people support. We should help defenceless people when their governments don't. Do we report or intervene if our neighbours abuse their children? There is no dilemma here. It's a matter of right or wrong.

And I believe the right way might sound horrendously incorrect in the wake of the Iraq problem. But I do agree with Steve Sesser of the New York Times. Perhaps some stronger country should invade Burma.