Japan help Myanmar in development

Japan help Myanmar in development

The potentially lucrative business opportunities offered by Myanmar seem to have more to do with Japan's change of heart toward Yangon than the Myanmarese junta's recent meetings with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Suvendrini Kakuchi and Leah Makabenta of Inter Press Service report.

TOKYO (IPS): Japan is sprinting ahead of Western governments to re-establish ties with Myanmar after officials here say they detected signs that the military junta in Yangon is considering relaxing its grip on the nation.

Indeed, some political analysts even say the resumption of official relations with Myanmar may take place as early as January next year.

But the decision is already meeting heavy criticism from Myanmarese exiles and Japanese analysts who say Tokyo is rushing too fast to befriend Myanmar's military leaders because of commercial concerns.

In early November, the Japanese government announced that it was ready to resume official development aid to Myanmar -- after a lapse of six years -- in the hope that it will lead to democracy in the South-east Asian nation.

Officials said the move was prompted by the two recent meetings of Myanmar's military leaders with Nobel laureate and Myanmarese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for the past five years.

The meetings took place in September and October and have been viewed by the international community as the clearest sign to date that the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), as the junta calls itself, is taking steps toward national reconciliation.

The modest gesture has encouraged Washington, SLORC's harshest critic, to embark on a hew strategy toward a constructive dialogue with Myanmar's military government. Britain, another leading advocate of the hardline approach against SLORC has also sent senior officials to Yangon.

But while Myanmarese exiles believe the United States and Britain have merely softened their policies toward Yangon a bit, they are worried over Tokyo, once Myanmar's highest aid donor, which has used the occasion to renew its old friendly ties with the Yangon.

"Japan has jumped ahead of Western donors by taking the initiative. It is something Tokyo has always wanted to do," says Myanmar expert Ikuko Ida of the Institute of Developing Economies.

Myanmarese exiles and their small band of Japanese supporters disagree with Tokyo's decision. They say it may only lead SOLRC to believe it can make the world forget that the Myanmarese military is determined to stay in power despite having lost the 1990 elections to Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (LND).

"If the international community wants real change in Myanmar, they should exert more pressure, not less," says Aung Htoo, first secretary of the All Myanmar Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) in Bangkok.

"The most important thing for SLORC is legitimacy," he adds. "If they sense that all they need is to stage a talk with Suu Kyi, they don't have to pay attention to anybody anymore."

Lawyer Toru Takahashi, who is fighting to have his Myanmarese client granted refugee status in Japan agrees. He points out: "Nothing has changed in Myanmar. Suu Kyi is still under house arrest. People are still afraid to speak out." Takahashi says Tokyo, which has just refused to grant refugee status to his client and 11 other Myanmarese, is merely protecting Japanese business interest in its bid to resume aid to Myanmar.

"Tokyo says its overseas development aid (ODA) is geared towards a stronger democracy in recipient countries. But that's not what's really happening," he says.

A government official who declined to be named also says: "We must appear too business-oriented even if the Japanese ODA charter does say governments working toward democracy must be rewarded."

In 1983, Myanmar stood at fourth place in Japan's long list of aid recipients. But in 1988, Japan decided to follow the lead of Western nations and cut off official aid to Myanmar after a bloody military crackdown on pro-democracy activists there resulted in the death of hundreds of students and Buddhist monks.

Still, Japan never stopped sending what analysts describe as "low-scale" humanitarian aid to Myanmar, racking up a total of 24 million yen (roughly US$240,000) for the past six years.

Now, a senior Foreign Ministry official says Tokyo will expand its medical, water and other fields of humanitarian assistance to Myanmar this year.

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono, though, has officially called on the military junta to "deepen its dialogue" with Suu Kyi as an important factor in Japan-Myanmar relations.

But while the ministry says full-scale aid, such as low- interest yen loans, will depend on the measures the junta takes to "settle" Suu Kyi's predicament, experts predict that it will not be long before Tokyo moves to loosen official aid flow to Myanmar.

Says Ida: "Myanmar's pressing need to improve its infrastructure is a potential market Tokyo does not wish to let that go by."

Other experts have noted that while Japan watched, Myanmar has been flooded with investments from Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan after SLORC embarked on new market-opening measures in 1992.

Unlike the West and Japan, many Asian countries - notably those from the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) - had decided to apply what they call 'constructive engagement' toward Yangon in the past few years.

Japanese businessman had been quietly pressing Tokyo to follow suit, pointing out that resource-rich Myanmar also has cheap labor. Several Japanese business delegations have visited Myanmar during the past two years.

"When I look back on the conversation with Chairman Than Shwe and First Secretary Khin Nyunt, I understand that it is not necessarily the case that U.S. and European criticism is wholly correct," Marubeni chairman and business mission leader Kazuo Haruna told Japanese reporters after his return from Myanmar in June.

Such views were echoed recently by senior Foreign Ministry official Shinichi Kitajima, who said Japan has "no preconceived notions of what has to be done" when it came to Suu Kyi's release.

He added: "I don't think we are thinking the same ways as the Americans are about the relationship with Myanmar."

But Myanmarese exile leaders fell that the meetings with Suu Kyi should be viewed as only the start of a peaceful dialogue that should include not just the opposition leader but all political forces in the country and the presence of the United Nations and international media.

"What we see as the only way for the SLORC to settle these political problems is to talk not just to Suu Kyi who have the mandate of the people but has not had the chance to communicate with her comrades," Senn Aung, foreign minister of the exile National Coalition Government of the Union of Myanmar (NCGUB), told IPS in Bangkok.

"Without this," he added, "we worry very much for her."