SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Burma Remains Contentious Issue for Region, U.S.

By Larry Jagan Reprint | | Print |

Larry Jagan

BANGKOK, Oct 14 2003 (IPS) - Burma will remain a major issue of contention between the United States and Asia’s leaders in the coming weeks, after South-east Asian governments indicated willingness to give Rangoon some room to prove that its road map is indeed in the offing.

U.S. President George W Bush will raise Burma’s political deadlock with his host – Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra – during both the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit here this month and his official one-day state visit, White House aides have been quoted as saying.

South-east Asia’s approach however differs from that of the United States and Europe, which believe that only international pressure and tough sanctions will bring Burma’s generals into line.

They will also be maintaining pressure on Burma’s neighbours to convince Rangoon’s military rulers to release Aung San Suu Kyi immediately and restart the dialogue process, a demand also earlier made by the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Western governments appear to fear that the 10-member ASEAN, of which Rangoon is a member, has let the Burmese military regime off the hook by not using last week’s ASEAN summit in Bali to press for immediate political change.

"It’s been a very successful meeting," Khin Nyunt told reporters in Bali during his rounds of bilateral sessions with many of the countries attending the summit, where he explained Rangoon’s road map to democracy for Burma.

"We have no intention of delaying things," Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung said of the seven-step road map. "After that the process will move forward in an appropriate time; it does not mean seven steps, seven years,” he said in an exclusive interview after the meeting.

But Marty Natalegawa, foreign ministry spokesman for host Indonesia, was at pains to dismiss the interpretation that the Indonesian president’s final statement on behalf of ASEAN leaders was soft on Burma.

"It (the statement) is not an endorsement of the Myanmar road map to democracy," he said. "But it is a recognition of the progress that has been made in the country since the ASEAN foreign ministers’ summit in Phnom Penh four months ago," he added.

ASEAN’s position remains that Aung San Suu Kyi should be released immediately and the national reconciliation process resumed.

"The statement should be seen as an addition to that and not a reversal of the previous position," said a senior Indonesian diplomat involved in the drafting of the press statement. "It recognises the fact that General Khin Nyunt has only recently become prime minister and needs time to be able to implement his newly announced plans to introduce democracy." What is even more important, South-east Asian diplomats say, is that Burma has promised to introduce real political and economic change.

Regional leaders appear willing to give Khin Nyunt time, believing that Burma’s military rulers have to be encouraged and persuaded to reform rather than pressured and coerced.

"We have to wrench every concession from the regime, and then lock them into it," said a senior South-east Asian diplomat on condition of anonymity..

Still, there was some tension within ASEAN behind closed doors over what to do with Burma. "The resolution was not strong enough," said Philippine Foreign Minister Blas Ople. "They should have acknowledged the problem in the formal statement, but they did not.”

But no one – not even the Philippines pressed for a stronger resolution – according to one of the participants.

Thailand strongly supported Burma’s prime minister during all the formal discussions. In their bilateral meeting, Khin Nyunt thanked Thaksin for his support, according to a Thai government spokesman, Sihasak Phuangketkeow.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo told Filipino journalists at the end of the ASEAN summit that Thailand’s prime minister protected Burma throughout the summit. This, she said, swayed the other ASEAN leaders because of their recognition that Thailand – as a neighbour – was more intimately aware of the circumstances in Burma and therefore his opinion was highly respected.

In the ASEAN way, however, leaders found their own way of expressing their concern about the situation in Burma.

During his meeting with Gen Khin Nyunt, Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong stressed the need for Rangoon to announce a proper timeframe for its road map.

Malaysia’s outgoing prime minister Mahathir Mohamad used the opportunity of his meeting with Khin Nyunt to remind the regime that ASEAN expects Burma to release Aung San Suu Kyi and resume the national reconciliation process as soon as possible.

The main concern of most Asian leaders at the summit though was to strengthen Prime Minister Khin Nyunt’s position in bringing about change, if slowly. Diplomats from the South-east Asian countries all seem to be of the same view – that there was no point in beating the generals over the head at the moment.

"He knows what we think; change is essential and Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD (National League for Democracy) must be part of the process," said a senior Thai diplomat.

Many in the region are convinced that the Burmese military are still split over how to deal with the pro-democracy leader and that there are some hardliners who do not agree with Khin Nyunt’s apparent conciliatory approach..

They hope that by supporting Khin Nyunt and welcoming his road map, the general’s position with the country’s top leader û Gen Than Shwe û would be strengthened as well.

The ball is now firmly in Burma’s court. "With Prime Minister Khin Nyunt’s announcing publicly his clear seven-stage plan, we are now on a very firm track to achieving the aspirations of the Burmese people – a modern, prosperous and democratic country," Burma’s Foreign Minister Win Aung said.

"Prime Minister Khin Nyunt is a very simple and honest man who is looking forward to turning his country into a real democratic one," Win Aung said..