Myanmar opening up under new leaders, envoy says
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)