Myanmar opening up under new leaders, envoy says
JAKARTA (JP): Myanmar is opening up under a new generation of leaders, according to its ambassador designate to Indonesia.
U Nyi Nyi Than said the image of Myanmar as a closed and isolated country which frequently violates human rights, as portrayed by many press articles, is simply inaccurate.
He told a press conference held at his residence yesterday that Myanmar has started to court an open market economy and foreign investments, and is leaving socialism and moving towards building a democratic country.
Most news reporting have been "one-sided and one-dimensional" and failed to provide the facts of his country's situation, he said. "I always feel unhappy when I read these news reports written by mostly western journalists -- some are good, but quite a lot have not even visited my country."
U Nyi Nyi Than arrived in Jakarta on June 25 to replace U Nyunt Tin. He is scheduled to present his letter of credentials on Aug. 4 to President Soeharto.
His country was once again put in the spotlight in the past week with Yangon's first participation at the annual meeting of the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Bangkok.
The presence of Myanmar Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw, who came as guest of the host nation Thailand, sparked criticism from ASEAN's major trading partners in the West.
The West, led by the United States, has been urging the ASEAN countries to put pressure on Myanmar to improve its human rights record, including releasing dissident leader and Nobel prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house detention.
U Nyi Nyi Than said Suu Kyi's marriage to a Briton and the length of time she spent abroad effectively ruled her out from taking any part in Myanmar politics.
He said the regulation is stipulated in Myanmar's first constitution enacted in 1947, one of the architects of which was her father, Aung San.
Myanmar's founding fathers, he said, inserted the provision as a consequence of their recent liberation from British colonial rule of Myanmar.
Freedom
"When you regain your freedom after being colonized by a Western power... you don't want to loose that freedom in any way... it is because of that (the constitution), and not because of the military government she was not permitted by the election committee (in 1988) to participate as a candidate in the elections," he said.
Commenting on the ASEAN's meeting in Bangkok, the ambassador designate said he believed it was only a matter of time before Myanmar joined ASEAN as it was geographically a part of South East Asia.
U Nyi Nyi Than expressed concern about the term "constructive engagement" which ASEAN countries used to describe their policy with Myanmar.
He said in its historical context, the term was used by Western countries to engaged with South Africa, then still ruled under an apartheid system.
"We don't have apartheid, we don't have human rights violations ... Myanmar is hardly known because we are weak in media relations," he said.
He suggested ASEAN should instead use the term "mutually, regionally, beneficial, southeast Asian brotherly friendship of equality and sovereignty between equal sovereign states".(pwn)