For decades, Myanmar’s ruling generals have defended the military’s iron grip on power as vital to keeping the former Burma intact and on the road to prosperity. This week’s devastating cyclone, which has killed at least 22,500 people in the Irrawaddy delta, has exposed the fragility of that myth with potentially major long-term implications for the junta, analysts say.

Many survivors of Cyclone Nargis’s 190 km per hour winds criticised the army for a sluggish response, especially when compared with its willingness to flood the streets of Yangon with troops to crush last September’s monk-led protests.

“The regime has lost a golden opportunity to send the soldiers as soon as the storm stopped to win the heart and soul of people,” one retired civil servant told Reuters.

“But where are the soldiers and police? They were very quick and aggressive when there were protests in the streets last year,” he said.

Even though the junta appears to have overcome its deep distrust of the outside world in saying it welcomed foreign assistance, many residents of the city of 5 million are reluctant to believe it.

“They can’t handle it on their own but I’m afraid they are too proud to accept assistance from the international community,” one resident of Yangon told Reuters.

“Priority should be given to relief and resettlement, but I’m afraid the present situation is very bad.”

In its coverage of the most devastating cyclone to hit Asia since 143,000 people were killed in Bangladesh in 1991, official media has given prominence to the military response.

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