The government-owned daily newspaper “New Light of Myanmar” has announced that a rare white elephant, a 38-year-old female standing over two metres tall, has been captured in Maungtaw, in the state of Rakhine. Analysts have underlined the fact that for some Myanmar people the white elephant is a symbol of political change, thus connecting it with the upcoming elections set to take place in October.
For others, better acquainted with the superstitions of the ruling junta, the news has a more worrying meaning.
A report by the Democratic Voice of Burma has alleged that the Myanmar government is developing a secret programme to create nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles: a “Great White Elephant”, a magical symbol of power. It's to be hoped that the project remains just a symbol. But it may turn out to be one of the worst monsters populating the Asian imagination thanks to the government’s cooperation with North Korea.
The real mystery of this latest act of lunacy by the military junta is not if they can make weapons of mass destruction, but why. For a dissident exile in Bangkok, this is proof that the generals are nothing more than a bunch of psychopaths living in fear of invasion. Others see it as a move controlled by the Koreans. Yet others see it as a much more complex strategy to gain control over the region. In the meantime, the new planes made for the top junta chiefs have also been named “White Elephant”.



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