BKK Post,April 12,1998.Postbag, Suu

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Suu Kyi is
not wrong
Pat James is wrong.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies the oppression, torture and murder of our fellow human beings.
Let me pose this hypothetical scenario to James.  The date is the 8th August, 1998.  The people of Dallas, Texas rise up in mass but peaceful demonstrations against what they see as unjust policies of their government.
The United States government, which is "changing laws and policies monthly as required ... in this ever-changing new global economy" order their military troops onto the streets where some 1,000 men, women and children are brutally shot, hacked or beaten to death.
Not to mention countless others who are arbitrarily arrested without charge, imprisoned and tortured.
Well OK, Pat James may conclude that these actions were necessary for the overall harmony of the United States of America, but my guess would be that he would be shocked, outraged and traumatised.
Aung San Suu Kyi is not wrong.  She most rationally believes that doing business with the Burmese military regime legitimises the brutal, and oppressive methods of their rule which, despite James' arguments to the contrary, continue to be their modus operandi throughout Burma.
I'm not sure what 'options' James is referring to when he says that the military 'made the correct choice' in 1990 but maybe it has slipped his mind that Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy was democratically elected by the people of Burma to govern Burma.
Surely there can be no clearer sign of a people's will than in their electoral choices.  How can ignoring the wishes of the vast majority of the Burmese people be the "right' choice?
As for happy families, I'm sure there were quite a few happy families being raised in Germany between 1939 and 1945.  They would be the Aryan families of Nazi supporters.

Of course there were more very unhappy families - they would be the Jewish families sent to their deaths in the Nazi concentration camps.  Western support of an 'open capitalist market' in Burma is like doing business with Hitler after you've already found out about the holocaust.

Catherine Hesse-Swain