No country and leader in modern times has risen to the top and plunged to the bottom of world respect so quickly. In just a year, Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar have gone from respect to disfavour in most of the world. Last August, the country started an ethnic cleansing campaign against its Rohingya minority that even a UN official called genocide. Now, it has sunk lower with the prosecution of two men for a crime that really has to be called "news reporting while Burmese".
Last week, a judge ruled that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo must go on trial. The two men are reporters for the London-based Reuters news agency. They were arrested while gathering information on a story that was embarrassing to Suu Kyi's government. The government alleges that the two men violated the Official Secrets Act.
There are many troublesome details about this trumped-up case. But arguably the worst concerns the law itself. The Official Secrets Act is a remnant of colonialism. No Myanmar official or parliamentarian had a hand in it. The Act was written entirely by English masters, and used against Myanmar citizens throughout the entire era that the British controlled Burma.
