ASIAWEEK: 980814: Suu Kyi wins a mo

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      PLAYING A GAME OF HARDBALL

        Suu Kyi wins a moral victory with her car trip

                           By Roger Mitton / Bangkok


FOR SIX DAYS LATE last month, the world's attention was riveted on a lady in rural
Myanmar who refused to get out of her car. On July 24, pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi
left her Yangon home and headed westward to visit colleagues in the provincial town of Pathein.
Military officials halted her journey after about 30 km and told her to turn back. She refused and
began a sit-in protest. Her car remained parked on a wooden bridge, day after day, under the hot
sun, with Suu Kyi withering in the back seat - while the country's ruling generals and assorted world
leaders traded barbs over the matter. Then, at 9:30 p.m. on July 29, two female officials entered the
car on either side of Suu Kyi, while a military driver took over the wheel. She was forcibly driven
back to Yangon, where she spent the next few days recuperating.

Thus ended an incident that had threatened to escalate into a major international crisis. But there
may be more such episodes to come. Suu Kyi's politically charged car journey was in fact the third
attempt she made to meet with provincial members of her National League for Democracy (NLD).
In each case, the military let her drive some distance before stopping her. On the first trip on July 7,
she spent a night in the car; on the second (July 20), she turned back after a few hours; on the third
occasion, "the lady" (as she is often called) played tough - and made the headlines around the
world.

The NLD charged that the forced return of Suu Kyi was an abduction; the authorities retorted that
the action was a "noble deed" that saved the dissident's life. Although the Yangon regime's
statements have a low credibility factor, some observers wonder if there is something to its claim
that "the NLD leadership has colluded with some Western embassies" to create an incident timed to
coincide with the recent ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting in Manila. They note that the current
tension had its genesis on May 27, when NLD members gathered at Suu Kyi's residence to
celebrate the eighth anniversary of its 1990 election victory (a result the military refused to
recognize).

At the bash, Suu Kyi and the party's aging leadership came under pressure from young turks who,
tired of the NLD's non-confrontational approach, demanded a more proactive agenda.
Consequently, an audacious deadline of Aug. 21 was set for convening a parliament in Yangon of
those MPs elected in 1990. Against this backdrop, Suu Kyi decided to make her road trips to the
countryside.

The collusionists claim this decision was made after the NLD spoke with the Yangon-based
emissaries of certain sympathetic Asian and Western governments. The idea was to concurrently put
pressure on the junta from outside in the run-up to the Manila pow-wows. Suu Kyi's sympathizers
knew that, because of ASEAN's policy of "non-interference," there was a limit to how far they
could go, but they decided to exert pressure by targeting the principle itself.

In early June, Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan delivered a speech in Kuala Lumpur in which he
suggested a review of the non-interference principle. Surin denied that his initiative was designed to
hit on Myanmar. "It's not country-specific," he told Asiaweek. But most observers echo former Thai
foreign minister Arthit Urairat, who says: "Myanmar does appear the most directly affected."

Following up in a most provocative way was Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon. In what
amounted to a call for revolution in a fellow ASEAN state, he openly suggested that Myanmar
exiles return home and emulate the Filipinos' 1986 People Power uprising. Later, while Suu Kyi was
holed up in her car, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright weighed in: "We believe that
freedom of movement is fundamental and that its denial can only increase the already dangerous
state of tension in [Myanmar]."

So what's the score after this incident? Unquestionably, the moral victory was Suu Kyi's. The
apparent coordination between the NLD and sympathetic ministers like Surin, Siazon and Albright
yielded dividends: the NLD gained world attention for its pro-democracy struggle and put the junta
on the defensive. Surin, however, rejects any notion that there was collusion. "Nobody wrote me a
script," he insists. An Asian diplomat in Yangon adds: "There's no way to confirm or deny these
allegations of collusion, but Suu Kyi does have a mind of her own. Do you think she needs to be
motivated by Western embassies? I don't think so."

With the Aug. 21 deadline approaching and Suu Kyi promising more car trips, the authorities have
unobtrusively tightened security in Yangon. Another cause for concern for the junta is the promised
reopening of universities - closed after student unrest two years ago. "Everyone is a little jittery,"
says one diplomat. A little tension has never cowed the generals of course. But now they are fighting
on two fronts - domestic and international.