..::₪BDC-Burma Democratic Concern ж ျမန္မာျပည္သူတစ္ရပ္လံုးအားကိုယ္စားျပဳသည္₪::..

Dear All,

Former UN Secretary-General U Thant's grandson, historian, former UN
Senior Officer (political department) and author of "River of the Lost Footsteps" and
"The Making of Modern Burma" Dr. Thant Myint-U was interviewed by Asia Times
Online about his views on the Myanmar issue including Ban's recent visit.
Please use this url : http://atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/KG04Ae01.html.

On sanctions:
Just over the past few years I think many more Western policymakers have
come to the conclusion that sanctions-based approaches just won't work
with a regime like Burma's. There has been a willingness to go back to
the drawing board and think about fresh approaches. Sanctions are at
best ineffective because they are not universal. The government is more
than able to survive on just trade and investment from within the
region. In the worst case, though sanctions are extremely
counter-productive, in that they've held back two forces - American
soft power and global capitalism - that could have actually started to
change things.

I fear the democracy movement has very little hope for
success if it's going to fight on the current landscape, that was
created and cultivated by the army over decades of fighting.

For me,the most important thing is to change the landscape first. The
involvement of the West through aid, investment and tourism could be a
huge part of changing this landscape. If over the past 20 years, if we
hadn't had all these sanctions and boycotts, and and instead had
focused on ending the armed conflicts, reforming the economy, and
reconnecting Burma to the world, including through global capitalism, I
think the pro-democracy movement would be in a much stronger position
today.

On UNSG Ban Ki-moon's visit:
It's incredibly hard for an international figure like Ban to simply go in
and sort things out. In North Korea for example everyone accepts the
focus is on nuclear proliferation; but - here it's much more
complicated, there are so many different issues, and international
opinion just on the nature of the problem is completely divided.

There are opportunities for Ban Ki-Moon but his success on this trip will
depend on his willingness to look at the big picture. He has to deal
with some of the immediate political challenges, but if he simply
repeats the mantra of the past many years and sees himself primarily as
a broker between the government and Aung San Suu Kyi, I'm not sure he
can get very far. I don't think he brings any leverage.
............ ......... ......... ......... ....

while other human rights violators like China is not imposed sanctions (explicitly they (West)
are afraid and can't afford to lose their interests), Myanmar has been facing severe sanctions
and international isolation for decades (ordinary people do not seem to understand this factor).
Simply they (the West) don't have any interest. All they have done is just moral concern..
The 'Lady' has been talking talking talking and is talking..... .

Moral concern is very dangerous in international relations.
Many people see the Roadmap as an opportunity and plan to contest in upcoming elections.
Perhaps there is no hope from the West as the history has already told us.
In fact, politics is to do with what you have, seize any opportunity comes, use in effective way.
True politicians. It is not too late for Burma to change.

best,
dt