以史為鑑

一些西方國家自己遇上困難， 就要把問題出口和轉嫁他國，這些霸凌、巧取豪奪和佛口蛇心的行為，百多年來，有改變過嗎？我們有足夠的警覺嗎？對西方國家馬首是瞻、唯命是從、出賣自己國家民族利益的代理人、喉舌和打手，會覺悟嗎？對這些人，我們有足夠的應對嗎？近來國際形勢紛紛亂亂，以史為鑑，我們就可以看清問題的本質。 

以史為鑑

梁振英

有些西方人總是要向亞洲人民說教，滿口自由人權民主法治之餘，以為我們沒有到過他們的國家，以為我們不會用他們的語文了解他們，以為我們不知道他們的前世今生。 
前兩天紐約時報(New York Times）隨報附送的旅遊雜誌有一篇關於緬甸的報道，作者是Rafia Zaharia。文章的以下幾段既發人深省，也有具現實意義的教訓，請大家細看。 
一些西方國家自己遇上困難， 就要把問題出口和轉嫁他國，這些霸凌、巧取豪奪和佛口蛇心的行為，百多年來，有改變過嗎？我們有足夠的警覺嗎？對西方國家馬首是瞻、唯命是從、出賣自己國家民族利益的代理人、喉舌和打手，會覺悟嗎？對這些人，我們有足夠的應對嗎？
近來國際形勢紛紛亂亂，以史為鑑，我們就可以看清問題的本質。

Recent history has been unkind to Myanmar. Burma, as it was officially known until three decades ago, was colonized by the British in stages, the result of three different wars over a period of 60 years. By the time the British sailed up the Irrawaddy River to annex the remaining territories of the country in November 1885, things were looking bleak for the empire. A political impasse over home rule for Ireland was leading the economy into a recession. Meanwhile, in India, the Indian National Congress was being formed with the goal of sending the British packing.

Burma was supposed to be an answer to these problems. One of the best-selling books in Britain that year was the South African-born British explorer Archibald R. Colquhoun’s “Burma and the Burmans: The Best Unopened Market in the World.” Colquhoun suggested that annexing Burma was the key to revitalizing British industry. British policymakers, eager for a solution, agreed. The king of Burma, they insisted, was a drunk despot with a wicked wife. If the British completed the colonization of Burma, they would be liberators, granting deliverance to a beleaguered people. There were also bejeweled Buddhas to be taken; jade, copper and coal to be mined; and cotton to be plucked – all rich additions to the queen’s coffers.

That was the British truth, born of convenience and very far from the Burmese reality. The third Anglo-Burmese war lasted only a few weeks. The British sailed into Mandalay, and the 28-year-old King Thibaw Min, 11th in the Konbaung dynasty, was placed in an oxen cart, his stoic queen beside him, and pulled through the streets to the boat that would lead him to exile. In January 1886, Burma officially became a province of British India.

完  

https://www.facebook.com/leung.cy.108/posts/863066490722496