Western pressure on Burma isn't working
- From: Mg Myanmar <mgmyanmar@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:00:55 -0700
Zar Ni: Western pressure on Burma isn't working
Sanctions and isolation only stymie the emergence of a viable civil
society
Published: 04 January 2006
Today marks the 58th anniversary of Burma's independence from Britain.
Our history since then has been a troubled one. But the current debate
over what to do about the country's military government, and the well-
meaning prescriptions proposed in the West, have been generally
simplistic and unhelpful. They over-emphasise democratisation above
other important aspects of nation building, and seek to effect regime
change through pressure and sanctions which are in many ways doing
more harm than good. After a decade and a half of failed policy we -
the opposition and the outside world - need to rethink our approach.
Burma's problems include pre-colonial ethnic and political divisions
institutionalised and exacerbated by 100 plus years of Britain's
colonial policy; by half a century of civil strife since independence
supported by the US, and occasionally our neighbours India, China and
Thailand; by a post-colonial leadership long on nationalist polemic
and short on intellectual and administrative competence; and by nearly
three decades of self-imposed isolationism.
There are also widespread human rights abuses, an ailing economy,
decaying public services in health and education, a decade-old
political impasse between the major opposition party led by Aung San
Suu Kyi and the powerfully entrenched military junta; the world's
second largest heroin trade along Sino-Burmese borders, and the
country's deeply rooted authoritarian but populist mass culture.
Even if we had succeeded in securing and building on our
democratically elected government in 1990, Burma's problems would be
daunting; but since the country's widely unpopular junta has been
singled out and transformed by the West into a global human rights
whipping boy, we have no chance of rapid development while the rest of
Asia, including Communist China and Vietnam, are lifting their
citizens out of poverty and undergoing societal changes.
Some have argued that all Burma's ills are self-inflicted (by the
ruling generals). The Burmese opposition and its supporters who
subscribe to this view see no hope for reforms originating from or in
association with the current junta. They seek a popular revolution
inside the country, with supporting "big sticks" from the
international community, as the only way of bringing about
democratisation and economic progress.
To be sure, no elite in power, civilian or military, can be expected
voluntarily to cave into voices for change. The Burmese generals are
no exception; but this should not preclude the possibility of ushering
in a new and improved order through other means, such as economic
change. If change is not possible through coercion, as is the case of
Burma, those of us who have been working for democratic change there
need to think anew.
The protracted economic sanctions and international isolation of Burma
only stymie the emergence of a viable civil society and economic
forces that can function to bring about political change. For an open
society - that ultimate goal of democratic and economic reforms -
cannot be fostered through and in isolation.
The defiant Castro regime is a living testimony to the failed American
(and, until recently, EU) policies, with no evidence that the Cuban
people have been helped politically or economically by 40 years of
Western sanctions. The current American efforts to Cubanise
international policy toward Burma is wrong and it must be challenged.
A different, better balanced Burma policy is urgently needed. In
addition to human rights issues, such a policy should take into
account the daily economic hardship confronting ordinary Burmese,
which can be addressed not through trendy "poverty-reduction" aid
packages, but only through foreign investment-induced economic growth.
It also needs to address national security and the interests of the
country's most powerful institution - the armed forces - which shows
no signs of implosion or splits. It must engage in a critical dialogue
with the junta at all levels about nation building, including the need
to institutionalise international human rights norms, to import
technical know-how, to improve the quality of education and health,
and to achieve environmental sustainability.
As her former colonial ruler, Britain is uniquely positioned to press
for the multi-faceted nation-building policies on Burma within the EU,
while serving as a moderating influence against the unilateralist
excesses in Washington, which seems bent on turning this former
British colony into a new American human rights "test-case" in South-
east Asia, and in the world at large.
The writer is founder of the Free Burma Coalition
.
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