A mother fans her baby at a temporary shelter near Yangon. (AP)

Bangkok, May 9 (AP): In the eyes of Myanmar’s military rulers, everyone is a potential enemy. Even foreign aid workers.

As the international community waits to deliver desperately needed aid to Myanmar’s cyclone survivors, it is getting a lesson in the mind-set of the country’s military rulers: reclusive, xenophobic generals who despise the western world.

Six days after Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar’s western coast, killing more than 22,000 people, the impoverished country’s needs remain enormous. After initially pleading for the world’s help, the junta now seems determined to shun it.

“The military regime is extraordinarily xenophobic. They are afraid of everything,” said Sean Turnell, a Myanmar expert at Australia’s Macquarie University.

Among the junta’s fears are internal uprisings, a US invasion, globalisation and its capacity to dilute traditional Myanmarese culture. In the aftermath of Saturday’s cyclone, the junta appears to be afraid of losing face with its people.

“If they can’t handle the situation and they let westerners come in with helicopters, this will demonstrate to their own people the shortcomings of the military,” Turnell said. “They are more concerned with control and maintaining an omniscience in front of their people than saving lives.”

A foreign military’s presence in Myanmar would mark a major concession for the junta. “They’re afraid that if foreign soldiers come in they are the spearhead to overthrow the government,” said Josef Silverstein, a retired Rutgers University professor who studied Myanmar for more than a half century.

From the junta’s perspective: “Aid workers could be carrying weapons to give to the people, they could give them ideas of how to overthrow the government.”