Asia Times: Thailand pays price for regional ambitions



	March 13, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Thailand pays price for regional ambitions
By Boonthan Sakanond

BANGKOK - Leaders of two of Thailand's poorestneighbors, Laos and Burma, came visiting in the second week ofMarch, in an attempt to sort out their long-standing bilateraldisputes with Bangkok and forge new relations with it.

The two visits were a study in contrasts.

While the trip by Lao Prime Minister Sisavath Keobounphanh waslow-profile and confined to economic issues, that by General ThanShwe -- the first ever by a Burmese junta leader since 1988 - wasa highly politicised and a controversial event.

Analysts say that the two visits show how, after being caught upin its domestic economic woes for the past few years, Thailand isagain reviving its decade-old dream of emerging as the politicaland economic hub of the entire Indochina region.

Thai officials called the meeting between Than Shwe and ThaiPrime Minister Chuan Leekpai a ''drug summit,'' highlighting theemphasis both countries put on sorting out the massive narcoticsproblem along their borders.

The two governments signed agreements to set up a jointcommittee of police and military officials to step up suppressionof drug production and trafficking.

Thailand and Burma also agreed to meet later next month tosettle long-standing sea and land border disputes, which in recentmonths have resulted in violent confrontation between Burmesenaval patrols and Thai fishermen. The two countries share a 1700-km. border.

Human rights and Burmese pro-democracy activists howevercalled the trip by General Than Shwe, chairman of theState Peace and Development Council (SPDC) as the junta hasrenamed itself, a whitewash. To them, it was the latesthigh-profile attempt by the junta to win global respectability.

''Why does Burma want to hold dialogue with Thailand now? Theanswer is very simple: the Burmese junta is isolated and in needof friends,'' says Aung Naing Oo, foreign affairs secretary of theAll Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF).

He says the Burmese are particularly interested in obtainingThailand's help to sort out the row between the Association of Southeast AsianNations (ASEAN) and the European Union over the latter'sthreat to prevent Burma from attending a March 29-30 meeting betweenthe two regional groupings in Berlin.

Burma is also keen to obtain Thai help in changing its globalimage as the world's largest producer of narcotics, a country whose government is accused of active collaboration with drugproducers.

The Bangkok-based Forum Asia, an umbrella organization for 14human rights groups, denounced the Rangoon military junta for its''involvement in the production and trafficking of drugs, andprotection of drug kingpin Khun Sa."

Following his surrender to the Burmese government in early 1996Khun Sa, one of the world's most wanted drug warlords, iscurrently believed to be living in Rangoon under full governmentprotection.

There is nothing new about Thailand's long-standing role as amediator between the Burmese regime and the internationalcommunity.

Since the bloody 1988 crackdown on the pro-democracy movementby the Burmese junta, successive Thai governments have played akey role in helping their neighbor come out of isolation and gainacceptance in regional forums.

Thailand was, for example, a key backer of Burma's attempts togain admission into ASEAN, membership in which is now opening evenmore doors in the international arena to the otherwise ostracizedBurmese junta.

''What is special this time is the fact that the heads of boththe Burmese and Thai governments are embracing each otheropenly,'' says a political analyst here who points out that in thepast most of the cooperation between the two countries was forgedthrough intermediaries like businessmen or military officials.

Despite their backdoor dealings on a wide range of issues,Thailand and Burma have had little contact at the formal,governmental level because of various tensions between the twoover border disputes, the issue of Burmese refugees in Thailandand alleged Thai help to ethnic minority rebel groups fightingagainst Rangoon.

Of all the ASEAN countries, Thailand was last on Than Shwe'sitinerary although the Kingdom is Burma's nearest neighbour.

There were, on the other hand, few political tensions evident between theThais and the Laotians during the visit by the Laotian PrimeMinister a few days prior to Than Shwe's arrival.

The focus of discussion in this instance was economic issues,with the Laotians worried about the spillover of the Asianeconomic crisis to their country via Thailand.

Since Laos started opening up its economy in the late '80s,Thailand has emerged as the single largest investor, accounting for34 percent (about $1.4 billion) of all foreigninvestment in the landlocked socialist state.

With the crisis, however, at least 237 foreign companies inLaos, mostly owned by Thai businesses, have closed down, throwingnumerous locals out of jobs and slowing down the domestic economy.

A key issue discussed between the two governments was thefuture of the $1.2 billion Nam Theun II hydroelectricproject, which was supposed to supply power to Thailand by theyear 2006.

With the crisis pushing down demand, Thailand has tried torenegotiate the commissioning of the dam to 2008, but the Laotianswant it to be done even earlier than originally planned - in2005.

Hydroelectric power is Laos' single largest source of foreignrevenue, and Thailand for the time being is its sole customer.

During the Laotian prime minister's visit, the two countriesalso signed an agreement to help Laos shift its export trade routeto Thailand. Currently 70 percent of Laotian exports go throughfree ports in Vietnam since the land route through Thailand isprohibitively expensive in comparison.

''Lobbying on behalf of Laos and Burma for membership in ASEANwas part of Thailand's attempt to emerge as the center of theIndochina economy,'' says a political analyst here.

But now, he says, with the economic crisis affecting ties withLaos and human rights violations marring Burma's global image,Thailand is learning to pay the price for its regional ambitions.

(Inter Press Service)

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