A Ray of Hope for Burma?
The New Year brings a slender ray of hope for a benighted part of the world. But in Burma, every silver lining has alongside it a dark cloud.
The ultrarepressive military junta that has ruled the country since 1962 (and has unilaterally renamed it Myanmar) recently announced that it will free in November that global symbol of nonviolent resistance, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. But there’s a catch here: The release will take place a month after a sham election will probably be held, barring Suu Kyi from participating.
Suu Kyi was sentenced to a further eighteen months of house arrest in August after a bizarre episode in which the Burmese military accused her of conspiring with an American who swam to her home. Suu Kyi has been kept in custody for fourteen of the past twenty years.
Interestingly, the announcement comes in the wake of a reorientation of U.S.-Burma policy over the past year. After a nine-month review, the Obama Administration said that it would engage with the junta while simultaneously maintaining the sanctions regime put into place by President Clinton. To this end, it has held two round of talks with the dictatorship.
But is the Obama approach working? Depends on whom you ask. Nehginpao Kipgen, a U.S.-based Burmese activist, commends the change in policy and asks that the Obama Administration go further down that path.
“Though there is still much uncertainty surrounding Burma's political future, it is important that the U.S. government continues to engage,” Kipgen writes. “A meaningful dialogue between the military leader, Senior General Than Shwe, and the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, must be encouraged, with the ultimate goal of paving the way to national reconciliation.”
On the other side, Nick Cohen of the London Observer condemns the Obama Administration’s silence about the solitary confinement of Burmese-American Nyi Nyi Aung as capitulation to a pathetic regime in the name of engagement.
“As Mark Farmaner from the Burma Campaign UK group says, European and Asian countries which don't give a damn about human rights and just want to make money aren't feeling any pressure from Washington to blacklist the [Burmese] regime,” Cohen writes. “The hope that Burmese democracy campaigners felt at Obama's election has long gone.”
In some sense, this is a continuation of a debate that has raged within the Burmese democracy movement for ages. Suu Kyi, the global symbol of the democracy struggle in Burma, has called for international isolation of Burma. Her position has been contested by the grandson of another Burmese icon, Burmese-American Thant Myint-U, whose grandfather was U Thant, the U.N. Secretary-General from 1961 to 1971.
The true test of the Obama Administration’s new Burma policy will be if anything does indeed change for the better in that nation by the end of the year. For the moment, one can only be bleakly optimistic.
Amitabh Pal is the Managing Editor of The Progressive magazine. To subscribe for just $14.97 a year, just click here.
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Comments
It's unwise to dismiss the ideas of others without consideration. Very often our "enemies" point us in the direction of success.
For instance, al-Quaeda often cites the deaths of civilians killed by the U.S. military's Predator drones. That is certainly a valid point, and they have a right to be angry. If the Mexican government hit my home with a missile, killing my family, I'd be pretty angry, too.
Every time we do this, trying to kill one particular high-level Qaeda operative, we create more terrorists. And we strengthen popular support for al-Qaeda.
On the other hand, eliminating Predator strikes would weaken the public support that assists Qaeda operations.
The U.S. military command seems to have no understanding of basic strategy. The U.S. is all Yang and no Yin. That's why al-Qaeda has such an easy time. It's like playing "rock, paper, scissors" with some poor bastard who throws out rock all the time. It makes you want to throw out scissors once in a while from sheer pity.
But it's really frustrating when it's your own country that always throws the rock. That's like betting on a game of "rock, paper, scissors" and hoping that sooner or later the idiot kid brother you have to bet on will try scissors by accident.
"Come on, Bobby! We've got this guy right where we want him. Throw scissors this time, and we can win back your pants. You remember how to do scissors, right? That's the one you usually like, except that the fingers don't go into your nose. Can you do scissors this time, Bobby?"
"You got it, Big Bro!"
So you anxiously bet your socks, and WHAM! You're whacked in the head with that rock again. If only you weren't a pacifist, you could take him by the neck and ....
Oh, excuse me, I seem to have been reliving that painful childhood again. Sorry. Where was I? Ah, yes.
America moves like a giant sloth with a tremendous hammer. Al-Qaeda moves like a cloud of wasps. Perhaps a hammer is not the very best tool? Think about that for a moment. If you were having a picnic with your idiot kid brother, and you were attacked by a swarm of wasps, would you grab a hammer? Then again, it might look like a tragic accident ....
No, Johnny, that would be WRONG! Bad! And don't use him to "distract the wasps while you circle around to attack them from behind," either. He'd never fall for it twice.
A FAIR and respectful peace in the Middle East would lessen terrorism. An end to the killing of civilians would lessen terrorism. A non-exploitive global economic policy would lessen terrorism.
But more Predator strikes; more wars in Muslim countries; more clandestine operations and assassinations; more troops; more guns; more exploitation; more indefinite detentions; more tough-talking, holier-than-thou Presidents ... these all strengthen al-Qaeda.
What's the latest brilliant strategy for Afghanistan? The U.S. wants to integrate Taliban fighters into the government. Sure, give terrorists guns, money AND governmental authority. Bets?
Why not do a competent job in one region, rather than losing everywhere? Why not make smaller areas secure and prosperous, to serve as inspiration for other areas? Why not integrate women and village elders instead of those who have been killing U.S. soldiers? The scissors, Bobby! Try the scissors this time. Please.
Let's hope that President Obama finishes his study of Lincoln soon, and that while studying FDR (essential in today's America), someone hands him a copy of the Tao Te Ching or The Art of War. (And one of Zinn's books would be nice as well, because the art of peace is also important.)
Right now, U.S. strategists seem clueless. It's terrifying to see this ignorance even in ranks above Major General. And thanks to that deficiency, people are dying needlessly -- many of them American troops.