As they count the cost of this massive earthquake, the people of Myanmar will be hoping for a silver lining, that the disaster may hasten the fall of their despised dictator.
The catastrophe comes at a very bad time for General Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power in a coup four years ago.
The Myanmar junta is losing a civil war against an array of opposition forces, ceding territory now largely kettled into the country’s big cities. And some of its worst damage has been done in its urban strongholds.
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The disaster is so bad that Hlaing has broken his government’s self-imposed isolation to appeal for help from the outside world. But the country’s inaccessibility will remain a huge obstacle to aid efforts.
Rescuers work at the construction site where a high-rise collapsed in Bangkok. Pic: AP
Making matters worse, President Donald Trump has decimated US aid operations in the country after shutting down the US Agency for International Development. For decades, American aid has provided as much as 40% of developmental aid worldwide. Not anymore.
The US president has promised Myanmar aid for the earthquake. On the same day, his administration was letting go of the last of USAID staff to lose their jobs.
In reality, Trump has fired most of the people most expert at organising help after this earthquake and the means to provide it. This will be the first major disaster to suffer the brunt of his devastating cuts.
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Myanmar is a deeply superstitious country. The generals who have ruled it since the end of colonial rule have consulted astrologers and use talismanic objects and animals, including white elephants, to protect their grip on power.
But earthquakes are thought to portend great change in Myanmar and sometimes the fall of leaders. That in itself may accelerate the toppling of its hated junta.
It remains powerful, supplied by ally China with advanced weaponry. It has used fighter jets to wreak havoc and carnage on opponents and civilians as the civil war has intensified.
But its enemies are gaining strength too, improvising with drones and other tactics to maintain momentum against a regime that lost all legitimacy. They will be encouraged in the belief that this disaster will bring closer their day of victory.
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