THE VIEW FROM THE EMBASSY OF MYANMA (r)

[OKKAR66129@xxxxxxx]

                             MYANMAR EMBASSY
                                 OTTAWA
                          MYANMAR  NEWS  LETTER
     VOL.1                     AUGUST 31, 1998                  NO.2



     EDITORIAL

             THE VIEW FROM THE EMBASSY OF MYANMAR IN OTTAWA

THE  REAL  FLASH - POINTS  ARE  ELSEWHERE  !

 It has been a month since the Asean  Ministerial  Meeting ( AMM ) took
place and ten days since the "dead line" set by a local politician
against the government passed. But It  was at the  AMM  in Manila that
Mrs.M.K.Albright repeated her usual prediction that Myanmar was on the
verge of a social "explosion" because of political instability, rapid
economic deterioration, being epicentre of an AIDS epidemic etc.
 This editorial then threw a spot-light on to her dismal record  with
the  crystal-ball  and stressed that whenever crises were being
predicted in Myanmar, the "flashpoints" have always been elsewhere in
the world.
 During the month long period since the AMM, much to one's regret, the
fighting in
the Balkans, crises in the middle-east, bomb-blasts near US Embassies in
East Africa, resumption of civil wars in Central, West and North Africa,
retaliatory rocket attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan etc. have captured
much media attention and that of the  U.S. and Western governments, with
the United Nations and it's agencies helplessly looking on and trying to
cope with  these crises.
 Now it remains to be acknowledged once again, that the Union of
Myanmar, despite western instigation of local politicians by even
sending in 18 foreign activists posing as  tourists, has maintained its
peace and stability and has proven the western prophesies  wrong like it
has done so many times in the past 5 years.
 It is also regrettable but getting increasingly obvious that the
developed western countries have little or no capability of predicting
correctly where the world's next  "real  flash-points" are going to be,
leave alone institute preventive measures against possible catastrophic
events.
 It is, indeed, high time for them to realise that the Union of Myanmar
harbors no hostility  towards any one  including those governments that
have been doing their worst not only to destabilise her but also
discredit her in the eyes of the people in their own  countries.They
have, infact, used every possible means at their disposal either
directly through  their media or indirectly through organizations and
institutions that they control or influence  such as the World Bank,
International Monetary Fund and even the United Nations.
 But over the past five years, inspite of all such pressures, Myanmar
have been proving  its critics and adversaries wrong by maintaining it's
stability and even bringing about the 50  years old armed insurgencies
to an end by extending the olive branch to every ethnic nationality
involved in the fighting. These former insurgent armies, who were not
involved in the electoral process of 1990, have now been  incorporated
into the National Convention without whose participation in drawing up
the new constitution,( under which a new government must be installed ),
the result will be hollow. The  country could then possibly descend once
again into the kind of civil war that the world has been witnessing in
many countries at this time. There are at present two critically
important points that must be acknowledged.
  Firstly it neeeds to be emphasized that neither the National League
For Democracy nor its General Secretary Mrs.Suu Kyi Aris were involved
in this crucial peace process. Since last year, almost all leaders of
these former  insurgents ( the Kachin Independence  Organization, Shan
State Army, New Mon State Party, Kayinni Organizations of  Kayah  State,
etc) who now have political control over  their respective "States",
called on Mrs. Aris to stop her foreign campaign against the Union and
severely criticized her for endangering  the sovereignty of the nation
by relying  too much on foreign powers ( "the Gorbachev Syndrome" ) for
her own political ascension to power. If this situation is properly
understood, it should be easy to understand why all the efforts to
discredit the government and bring about civil unrest and social
"explosions" have failed so  miserably so far.
 Secondly, the superficial and short-sighted assessment of the Myanmar
mentality- that people are afraid, "cowed" by the power of the SPDC
government is severely flawed. It offends the pride and basic decency of
the Myanmar peoples and at the end of the day  will be counter
productive. It also insults them to their core and ignores their
historical courage and resilience that kept their nation independent,
except for once, in their long and  proud existence over a thousand
years.
 However, we are aware that scarcity of objective information always
tends to make disinformation campaigns easy. The Embassy of the Union of
Myanmar therefore is
providing it's periodic "short perspective of the country's political
development" once again as follows:
 1. The  Union of Myanmar is NOT yet a democracy. It is only trying to
move towards a multiparty democratic system from the  massive
destructive  anarchism  it sufferred 10  years ago.

 2.  It  should be noted that there are still countries in the
neighbourhood of  Myanmar (China, Laos & Vietnam)who have not yet
allowed democratic parties  to be formed  and yet  making  good
economic  progress. Therefore Myanmar  should  also  be accorded the
right to develop itself with  its own pace  and  geo-political
determinants  in  mind.The  country  is  not  rich  at present but  has
already come a long way from that of 1988.

 3. The Government of Myanmar allowed democratic political parties to be
formed and even held an election to form an assembly that  was intended
to oversee the development of a national constitution. This was possibly
misconstrued by the western  democracies who joined the winning
political party in demanding for an immediate transfer of power . When
this was denied many elected delegates went underground, took up arms
against the government   and forced the Election Commission to declare
their elections null and void.

 4. The remaining "legal" delegates then joined the national convention
-which  is actually  a forum  for "dialogue" where representatives from
all walks of lives and from all the former warring factions of the
ethnic national races, except  one, participated. However, the  'wait '
for the  last ethnic insurgents  to return to the legal fold and some
remaining work on intricate details caused a "recess"of the plenary
sessions  to be  called. Up to the present, 17 out of 18 groups have
returned with only a fraction of the Karen National Union (but mainly
the christian leadership) still procrastinating for some unfortunate
reasons. But the work of the convention goes on at committee levels.

 5. Since the formation of the democratic parties were allowed, the
government spelled out certain disciplinary rules that still restrict
them from full-blown "politicking"  that are   already standard
practices in fully democratized  countries. But one of the parties whose
General Secretary Mrs Suu Kyi Aris was disqualified by  law (since 1947
constitution drawn up under her father's  patronage ) to stand election
(because of her marriage to a foreigner), became the tool of the western
powers to campaign and agitate, first for immediate transfer of power
and later  slightly toning down to convening of  the elected  but
outdated  National  Assembly which has been already  in  disarray  for
past  eight  years. Two years ago  she also  ordered her party delegates
attending the National Convention to walk out of the DIALOGUE and
automatically disqualifying  them according to the disciplinary rules
as  delegates to the  National Convention. But then "eight years"is far
beyond any legitimate tenure of any elected assembly.  The time has come
to think anew.

 6. Although the government is not able to give Mrs.Aris any  special
political previleges still  denied to other political parties it has
tolerated her defiance and political antics up to a  certain limit
simply because she happens to be the daughter of Gen.. Aung San , the
nationalist leader.  But it has been made clear  that anything beyond
that limit will  have to be dealt with firmly although "exercising
utmost  restraint" ensuring that nobody, including  herself, gets hurt.

 7. Up to this point, the people of Myanmar with their usual low level
of interest in party  politics, have given little attention to the
so-called "incidents" in contrast to the  way they  have been blown out
of proportion in Western Countries, where a negative media campaign has
been simultaneously waged.

 The Union of Myanmar, always concious of attempts from abroad to
destabilise her, will cautiously continue to reject any infringement on
her sovereignty and interference  in her  internal political affairs
with a firm resolve like it has successfully done so in the  past.
Myanmar will, however, steadily continue it's transition toward a
multiparty democratic system which must be in keeping with her tradition
and culture -not something that has been "cloned like molly the sheep"
in the western developed countries.

    At  one  month  after  the  US  Secretary  of State expounded at the
AMM, her interpretation of the situation in Myanmar, the  country
remains peaceful and calm. Crime rates (including those drug-related)
for cities remain among the world's lowest, natural gas from her
off-shore fields are about to flow into the national pipelines to
augment the energy resources, new bridges span major rivers and new dams
irrigate arid but fertile lands. University exams have been fully
conducted  and even the leaders of "Burmese" dissidents in Japan
relinquish their refugee status to return home. Also noteworthy is the
fact that  UNDP's Human Development Index for Myanmar (rising from
position 131 in  1994 to 111  by 1997 ) remains higher than all it's
immediate Western neighbours and data evolved from the WHO and Anti-AIDs
Organizations in Asia will  easily reject the defamatory statement that
Myanmar is the epicentre  of  AIDs  in  South  and  South  East  Asia .

  It is time for big  powers to stop barking up the wrong tree!
  The real flash - points are elsewhere !
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