By openly coming to the rescue of Burma’s military regime, Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has queered the pitch of moves by regional governments to prod the junta into genuine political reform.
Following his first visit to Burma, Samak made statements that have had many Burma watchers in Thailand and across South-east Asia reacting in disbelief. ‘’Killings and suppressions are normal there but we have to know the facts,’’ the premier said on Sunday during his weekly TV programme, ‘Samak’s Talk’.
He then went on to praise the Burmese dictator, Sr. Gen. Than Shwe, who ordered Burmese troops and riot police to fire at the peaceful street protests, led by thousand of Buddhist monks, in September last year, leaving scores dead. ‘’And Senior (Gen) Than Shwe practices meditation. He says he prays in the morning ... and the country has been in peace and order,’’ said Samak, who spent one-day, Mar. 14, visiting Thailand’s western neighbour.
The flaws in such a reading of Burmese politics even prompted a response from Surin Pitsuwan, a former Thai foreign minister who is currently the secretary-general of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN). He ‘’advised’’ Samak to be ‘’prudent before commenting on issues involving Burma,’’ reports Wednesday’s ‘Bangkok Post’ newspaper. ‘’Surin stressed the need to approach the political situation in Burma with an in-depth understanding and respect for its sensitivity.’’
Samak’s comments, in fact, stand in sharp contrast to the measured view expressed days earlier by officials in Singapore, currently the chair of the 10-member regional bloc ASEAN, of which Burma and Thailand are members. ‘’The (Burma) issue is complex and demands immense patience and sustained effort,’’ said a foreign ministry spokesman in the city-state.
Singapore has thrown its weight behind the efforts of United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari to persuade the Burmese regime to open its political process, including offering a significant role for Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader who has been in detention for over 12 of the past 18 years. ASEAN is also backing Gambari’s diplomatic efforts, the Singapore official added.
But the Burmese regime gave Gambari a hostile reception during his last visit this month, the third to the country following last September’s brutal crackdown of the pro-democracy street protests in Rangoon and other cities. Gambari confirmed this on Tuesday, telling the U.N. Security Council in New York that he was disappointed with the lack of progress.
ASEAN’s other members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam. Of them, the more democratic countries, Indonesia and the Philippines, have turned the most heat on the Burmese regime for its harsh measures to retain its grip on power. Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has said that her country would not ratify a new ASEAN charter if Burma did not restore democracy and free Suu Kyi.
‘’The Philippines and Indonesia want to see lot more change in Burma, while Singapore has said the problems cannot be ignored and Malaysia has issued some statements about human rights,’’ Roshan Jason, spokesman for the ASEAN Inter-parliamentary Caucus, a network of parliamentarians from across the region, told IPS. ‘’There are different levels of conformity within ASEAN regards Burma.’’
Thailand’s decision to pursue a more friendly neighbour policy is rooted in Bangkok’s economic interests in Burma. This was confirmed during Samak’s visit, where a business deal was struck to expand Thailand’s position as Burma’s third-largest trading partner. In addition to supplying a four-billion-baht (125 million US dollars) loan to the junta, Bangkok also agreed to push ahead with building a controversial hydropower dam on the Salween River and finance other infrastructure projects.
Such an approach to Burma was defined by the administration of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted from power in a September 2006 coup. During his five-and-a-half-year term, Thaksin offered a helping hand to the Burmese regime when it came under fire from Western governments and even from ASEAN members since 2003, when the junta attacked and detained Suu Kyi.
The People Power Party (PPP) that Samak heads is the successor to the Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thai - TRT) party, which Thaksin led. The PPP won the most seats at last December’s general election. The TRT was disbanded in mid-2007 by a special military tribunal and 111 party executives, including Thaksin, were banned from politics for five years.
‘’The new Thai government’s diplomacy is unlikely to be different from Thaksin’s business-oriented diplomacy before he was ousted,’’ writes Kyaw Zwa Moe in ‘The Irrawaddy,’ a current affairs website published by Burmese journalists living in exile in northern Thailand. ‘’Thaksin was a friend of Burma’s military regime when he was prime minister from 2001 to 2006. He was often criticised for courting the junta through business concessions and his defence of the military leaders.’’
Yet Thailand is taking a political gamble in pursuing such a policy in the wake of the international outrage that followed the brutal crackdown last September, says Debbie Stothard of ALTSEAN, a regional human rights lobby. ‘’For a long time Thailand has tried to increase its prestige and standing in international diplomacy. So Prime Minister Samak’s recent comments are ill considered.’’
Such open praise for the Burmese junta will place a new diplomatic hurdle for ASEAN, she said in an interview. ‘’Burma has always been a divisive issue in ASEAN, and Prime Minister Samak’s comments will deepen the divide.’’