Story on Myanmar bothers me

Peter Burgess's article on Myanmar (Jakarta Post, Sept. 3, 1994) was interesting, but some things about it bothered me. Maybe it was the gosh-what's-all-the-complaining-about- everything's-just-ducky attitude. Consider the following:

The stuffy old guide books are wrong. You don't have to bribe immigration officials with cigarettes and whisky anymore; they've lowered the price and automated it by stealing from the foreign exchange commissions.

Laws forbidding Myanmarese from associating with foreigners are "seldom (read `selectively') enforced". One can only speculate upon the basis for the selectivity.

Undercover police entrap tourists into exchanging foreign currency unless "done with a bit of care". But they didn't get Burgess -- he's careful. It's easy to hold others in contempt for their carelessness when you're not the one who's been caught and extorted.

You can still participate in the theft of intellectual property by purchasing "photocopies" of perennial favorites cheaply.

And my favorite: constructive engagement is working! You can buy Indonesian batik there! Can elections and democracy be far behind?

These are craven government mouthpieces around who will excuse the bloodiest of dictators (Jean Claude Duvalier, late of Haiti, is still fat, happy and protected somewhere), but please, Burgess, stick to the travel facts, don't parrot political party lines.

Transparency having taken on new meaning lately, I will understand if this is never printed, or is heavily edited.

GARY GENTRY

Jakarta