The Cruelty of Dictatorships

The world is shocked and horrified that the military junta in Burma will not allow disaster aid to reach its citizens. Yet this is typical of most dictatorships and totalitarian governments. They are paranoid, don’t want “the outside” to see the terrible conditions their rule has produced, and they are in constant fear of a revolt because of those conditions to which the people have been reduced.

If you look at such regimes, past and present, you see how they have not cared one bit about their people, and have frequently inflicted horrendous suffering (North Korea) and even widespread death on the population (Stain, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Mao). Most of the time, such regimes are godless (like communism) or occasionally fanatically religious (like the Taliban), distorting the principles of their religion. The hallmark of such regimes is self-preservation at any cost. A good example of that is Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

One hopeful sign is the actions of the Chinese government after the earthquake. They rushed aid to the affected areas, allowed the foreign media to photograph and report on what happened, and actually seemed to value human life. To me, that is a sign of hope, that China is gradually moving away from the typical communist/totalitarian regime model. That will make life more bearable for the over one billion citizens of mainland China.

Please pray for the people who are still under the harsh rule of totalitarian and otherwise cruel regimes, such as in Burma, Zimbabwe, Sudan, North Korea, to name a few.