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Myanmar promises reform ... yet
again
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - A rare meeting to discuss Myanmar's
political future achieved an apparent "breakthrough" as
the military government promised to undertake political
reforms, according to Thai organizers of what they call
the "Bangkok Process". But skeptics said the junta had
probably delivered more empty promises.
Thai
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai hailed the
three-hour session on Monday as a "breakthrough",
calling the attendance of Myanmar Foreign Minister Wing
Aung "testimony that Myanmar is ready to participate in
a transparent manner".
The session at Thailand's
Foreign Ministry was attended by 10 other countries,
Australia, Austria, China, Germany, France, India,
Indonesia, Italy, Japan and Singapore. Other meetings
are expected next year, but it was not clear whether
Myanmar's government is serious about delivering
reforms.
Surakiart told a news conference on
Monday that the Yangon government had promised to hold a
national convention to draw up a new constitution next
year. Win Aung had promised that "all eight levels of
Burmese social strata" would participate, Surakiart
said. He cited academics, villagers, military personnel,
and political parties, including the opposition National
league for Democracy (NLD), among others.
"This
is the first time we have been informed about this,"
said Surakiart, adding that more information is expected
when the "Bangkok Process" convenes for a second round
of discussions next year.
Myanmar watchers and
exiles were skeptical, noting that the Yangon junta has
previously bluffed the international community with
empty promises and cosmetic changes.
"The
commitment to a date, 2004, to resume the national
convention process after it ended in 1996 is, in a way,
a small breakthrough," said Debbie Stothard of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations Network on Burma,
a regional human-rights lobby. "But there has to be a
democratic process leading up to how the national
convention will be structured," she said.
Magazine editor Aung Zaw, a Myanmar national,
dismissed the touted "breakthrough". "There is nothing
new in these commitments. You can find this information
in [the government's newspaper] the New Light of
Myanmar," said the editor of The Irrawaddy newsmagazine
published by Myanmar exiles in Thailand.
In 1993,
Myanmar's junta began a convention process similar to
the one it now is promising. It set up a national
convention involving approved political participants to
draft a new constitution. But the process came apart in
1996, when the NLD withdrew in protest that the military
regime had denied its members the right to discuss
pressing political issues freely.
The Thai
foreign minister also said his Myanmar counterpart had
pledged to the international participants that Yangon
wanted public support for its "roadmap" for change.
That roadmap includes conducting a referendum
once the constitution is drafted "to gather the public's
view - if they like the constitution or not", said
Surakiart.
But for Stothard of the human-rights
group, such moves will be futile if the planned
plebiscite is conducted in the current climate of
political repression and media suppression. "The public
should have access to discuss all the issues, and for
that media freedom should be guaranteed," she said.
Another test of credibility is the junta's
attitude toward Nobel Peace Prize laureate and NLD
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was arrested along with
senior party members after they were attacked on May 30
by thugs sympathetic to the junta.
"They will
have to release Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders before any
political discussions are held," said Stothard. "The NLD
will not participate if their leaders are in prison."
According to Surakiart, Win Aung told
participants at the meeting that Prime Minister General
Khin Nyunt was maintaining "good communications and good
contact" with the imprisoned Suu Kyi.
But
Surakiart admitted, "We should not assume that Khin
Nyunt and Suu Kyi actually have had face-to-face
meetings."
Most likely, say Myanmar nationals,
such contacts are being maintained through regular
meetings between Brigadier-General Than Tun and the
imprisoned pro-democracy leader.
For editor Aung
Zaw, such talk of exchanges between the military
government and Suu Kyi amount to nothing more than "the
government trying to give legitimacy to their story that
something is going on in Burma, when nothing is".
On the eve of the meeting, Thailand's foreign
minister was cautious: "We do not hold high expectations
for this forum. We only hope it will make some
contribution to the national reconciliation process in
Burma," as Myanmar was known before the junta officially
renamed it in 1989.
Myanmar has been reluctant
to attend any international meetings at which it might
be pressured to undertake democratic reforms, so its
attendance at the Bangkok session was unusual. Yangon is
suffering under economic sanctions and international
opprobrium and is trying to improve its standing.
Myanmar watchers said they expected the session to give
legitimacy to a political process that would only
guarantee the longevity of the junta.
(Inter
Press Service)
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