Hong Kong Paper Calls for Increasing Exchanges, Investment in Burma

Text of report by Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao website on 4 October

['Political Talk" column by Shih Chun-yu: "Putting Pressure on Burma Is Unhelpful to Solving the Crisis"]

Large-scale anti-government demonstrations took place in Burma and the armed forces resorted to armed suppression of the protestors, leading to bloodshed. Countries around the world reacted to it differently. China and the majority of ASEAN countries voiced the wish that both sides exercise restraint and seek a solution rationally. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also sent a special envoy to Burma to participate in the mediation process. But US President [George W.] Bush immediately made a big fuss of it and threatened to introduce new sanctions against Burma, while encouraging other countries to take similar actions.

United States wishes to take advantage of this opportunity to overthrow Burmese government

The US Authority has all along been hostile towards the Burmese military government. For years, Washington has been taking all kinds of measures against the Burmese Government under the rhetoric of defending human rights and spreading democracy and has imposed economic sanctions against this country. Burma is an ASEAN member. Because of US hostility towards Burma, Secretary of State [Condoleezza] Rice made a point of boycotting the ASEAN Regional Forum. The US Government even refused to accept the English name for the country adopted by the Burmese authority. On this point, a White House spokesperson explained: “We have decided not to use the language used by a totalitarian autocracy that suppresses its people.”

After the monks took to the streets, Washington obviously wanted to undermine the Burmese Government’s prestige by way of imposing sanctions on an expanded scale and to create a new crisis in Burma, in a bid to topple the troubled Burmese Government. Because Burma is rather hermetic and the United States’ influence on this country is relatively limited, the United States is resorting to various means, including media offensive, to urge China and ASEAN countries that have more contact with Burma to put pressure on the latter. Some individuals with ulterior motives have gone so far as to overexaggerate China’s influence on Burma and attempt to link China’s policy towards Burma with China’s hosting of next year’s Olympic Games. They wish to blackmail the Chinese Government with some crazy acts, such as boycotting the Olympic Games. All this sounds positively puerile.

Turmoil in Burma stems from weak economy

The overall backcloth behind the turmoil in Burma is its deteriorating economy and ever-worsening inflation. The livelihood of the general public is going from bad to worse and this has even affected the monks who live on alms. According to media reports, the direct cause of the large-scale protests was the upward adjustment of fuel prices by the government, which led to considerable increases in the transport expenses of commuters. This sparked off strong popular discontent and the wish on the part of the public to see the situation changed. But the failure of the military government to improve the economy and the public’s livelihood over the years and the embezzlement by and corruption of a minority of the powers that be were the real cause of the turmoil.

In order to impel Burma to open up and improve the country’s state of economy, the most effective way is not putting pressure on Burma or imposing economic sanctions, but expanding exchanges with Burma, increasing investment in Burma, and eventually influencing Burma’s public opinion. Faced with US reprehension, ASEAN countries did for a time become evidently more critical of the Burmese Government, but the situation in Burma did not change because of it. China took a completely different stance on this matter. China’s investment in Burma not only serves its own interests, but is also intended to help Burma develop its economy. The importance of such investment comes into sharp relief because of the sanctions imposed by Western countries on Burma.

One thing in the United States’ foreign policy has remained unchanged for decades, that is, if Washington does not like the government of a particular country, it will definitely try to overthrow it and the easiest action to take is to blockade the country economically. Regrettably, however, the United States is still using the trick that never really worked in the Cold War, without realizing that that era ended a long time ago.

Originally published by Ta Kung Pao website, Hong Kong, in Chinese 4 Oct 07.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.