Putting our faith in Khin Nyunt
The government is bending over backward to improve relations with Rangoon. It has turned a blind eye to abuses inside our neighbour's borders so that there is least resistance to policies which may benefit us.
ANURAJ MANIBHANDU and SARITDET MARUKATAT
source : the Bangkokpost (06-09-01)
The government has invested a great deal in Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, first secretary of Burma's ruling State Peace and Development Council, and, like any investor, it must expect a worthwhile return.
What Burma chooses to deliver, or not, in the next few months will prove the success or failure of the government's strategy.
Among the more dramatic announcements made by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra during the visit were the approval of 20 million baht for the Office of Narcotics Control Board for technical help in Burma's anti-drug effort, and an offer of preferential trade terms for cash crops which the Wa promise to grow in place of drug derivatives.
Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt did not seem to have much in his pocket in return apart from confirmation that Burma would take part in the four-nation drug summit proposed by Thailand (Laos and China are the other two participants), and an offer for the release of about 60 Thai prisoners, which has become something of a ritual.
But Pornpimol Trichot, a Burma scholar with Chulalongkorn University's Institute of Asian Studies, was largely upbeat about the visit and believes it has opened a ``new era'' in Thai-Burmese relations. ``I can't say I am impressed with the visit, but I am pleased with the outcome and approach,'' she said.
For starters, Ms Pornpimol pointed out, the visit marked the first time the two countries had put on the table all contentious issues, like illegal labour, refugees, border disputes and border demarcation, and agreed that they were shared problems.In the past, she said, Burmese leaders had never accepted the existence of these problems. ``This time both sides went directly to these points.''
How these problems will be solved now depends on follow-up negotiations and the bargaining skills of Thai authorities.
The prime minister proposed the creation of a joint task force to manage Burmese workers here, and the signing of a memorandum of understanding to this effect. He also spoke of plans to repatriate displaced persons, but on a voluntary basis, with international agencies to help build settlements in safe areas inside Burma that would offer vocational training to returnees.
Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, the defence minister, called for transparent means for solving border disputes, and the setting up of a general border committee headed by defence ministers along the lines of similar co-operation Thailand has with Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
The forum expected to pursue talks on most of these, and other, issues is the Thai-Burmese Joint Commission, which is scheduled tentatively to meet in Phuket in December, although a meeting opening in Chon Buri today of a committee co-chaired by regional army commanders from the two countries may touch on some of them.
The joint commission meeting was initially scheduled to take place this month, but was postponed in order to wait for the outcome of Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt's visit this week.Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt was in Thailand as a guest of Gen Chavalit, who spared little effort to impress him. While others might question the minister's hospitality style, Ms Pornpimol said Thailand had to accept that the armed forces know Burmese leaders best. She commended the top brass for staying behind the scenes even though they had been instrumental in bringing the visitor to the country.
She also made it crystal clear as to why the government had put its money on Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt.rather than on other members of the ruling junta. Not least important is his image as a moderate, when compared with his political rival, Gen Maung Aye, the hard-line Burmese army commander who is concurrently vice-president of the SPDC.
Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt is also directly responsible for ethnic minorities based along the border, drugs, refugees and border issues, all of which pose problems to Thailand. In addition, he is in charge of the junta's talks with the opposition National League for Democracy headed by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi that began in October last year.
In keeping with the government's policy of non-interference in the affairs of neighbours, no one except non-government protestors raised the issue of human rights violations in Burma while Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt was in town.The government simply reaffirmed support for the process of national reconciliation in Burma and reiterated that it would not interfere. Critics impatient with the perceived snail's pace of the process, and horrified by continuing violations of human rights and democracy in Burma, can only be furious with the government's failure to raise these issues.
For most observers, this marked a 360 degree turn from the stand taken by the Chuan government, a stand which did not have the time needed to bear fruit. And many analysts think the Burma problem will need plenty of time to solve.
The visit also occasioned talk of several well-worn plans to build new road links or refurbish existing ones. While there was some recognition that a lack of funding was the main stumbling block for most projects, Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai thought that Thailand could build a planned second bridge between Mae Sai and Tachilek without any problem.Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt may now be counting the marks he scored during his visit to Thailand, or worrying about ways of delivering Burma's part of the bargain. The power-sharing between moderates and hawks in the SPDC will require him to strike a deal with all sides on how to respond to Thailand's offers.
For its part, the Thaksin government might do better to prepare for the worst, in case Burma does not deliver, rather than the best return on its investment in the junta's first secretary.