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June 19, 2005
Aung San Suu Kyi is 60 today
Aung San Suu Kyi is 60 today. She is still imprisoned in Rangoon by one of the most unpleasant of all regimes. Imagine a country run by five or six of the worst generals in Indonesia and you have Burma.
Burma has not received the attention it deserves. While its people have been oppressed, its rain forests cut down, its mineral wealth exploited by foreign companies, and even its historic heritage (at Pagan) despoiled, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Japan and Europe have vacillated, and time, 15 years now, has past. Only the Americans have stood relatively firm.
I was in Burma in the 1970s and late 1980s. The situation there is not, in my view, like Iraq or Iran, or Zimbabwe for that matter, but more like fascist Greece or Spain - it could be a pushover for democracy. Even within the civil service and the military, the generals enjoy little popular support. The people know that life is better and safer in other southeast Asian countries. The collapse of the regime could be rapid and complete when it finally comes - but we need to apply pressure, not feeble Jack Straw-style gestures!
Does Burma matter? I think so. It’s extraordinarily beautiful with a sizable population (42 million), forming the geographical link between southeast Asia and the sub-continent. Because of its colonial past, many Burmese speak English and maintain an interest in Britain, even if that, tragically, is not reciprocated.
news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=647706
unspun.mithuro.com/content/view/229/53
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=647664
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AungSanSuu_Kyi
Posted by Simon Holledge at June 19, 2005 08:05 AM
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