The cyclone in Myanmar has killed 37,000 people. Another 1.5 million have been rendered homeless. The people badly need help but the rulers, a military junta, have been refusing it. Instead they have gone ahead with a referendum held to legitimise permanent military rule. Already, the military has been in power for 46 years. The new, army-drafted constitution is anything but democratic. It favours a presidential system, and the president has to be an army officer. No woman can be president. The military, rather as in Pakistan, is to be embedded in every institution such as the presidency, parliament, and governments. There is no opposition in the sense normally understood. Chief ministers are to be nominated by the president and "he or she may or may not be the same nationality of the people of the state" even though the federation is constructed along ethnic nationality lines. The judiciary is not to be independent and the judges of the supreme court will be nominated by the president. The judiciary will have no jurisdiction over the military. And, for all practical purposes, the constitution cannot be amended. Needless to say, the referendum was not free and fair in the sense that these terms are commonly understood. No opposition to it was permitted and voters were more-or-less told to vote for it. Meanwhile, most of the 1.5 million survivors of the cyclone are waiting for help in the form of food and medicine. (The generals have approved one US plane with aid on board to land.) The Americans have said that their aid will be on the same terms as after the 2004 tsunami and the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. China has said nothing so far. India has so far dispatched two relief ships belonging to the navy. These two events and the way in which they have overlapped