Burma, a rising star?

The reforms underway in Burma is making it a rising star among the few countries under totalitarian regimes.  Rising star can fall.  Many people will watch Burma with hope, prayer and admiration for the next few years.

For countries under longtime dictatorship, having a realistic roadmap to democracy and sticking to it is the most important.  These countries cannot be realistically switched to free countries overnight barring bloody revolutions.

The fate of Burmese reforms will have an effect on its giant neighbor China which is a much larger version of a country under a totalitarian regime with ethnic conflicts.  If  the majority ethnic group Bamar (the equivalent of Han in China) can lead the country to a free, peaceful, stable and prosperous nation with many ethnic groups living together with harmony, it will give the Chinese another wake-up call beside the Arab Sparing.  Freedom and truth are the foundation of endured stability and and harmony.  A police state is inherently unstable let alone unjust.