The Nation-EDITORIAL: Rangoon 18 --

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The Nation
EDITORIAL: Rangoon 18 -- The generals blinked


It would be laughable if it wasn't true -- five years of hard labour for
distributing ''goodwill messages''. Clearly, the sentence meted out to the
18 foreigners by a Burmese makeshift court last Friday had exposed, once
again, the brutal reality of the military regime. That the activists were
immediately deported only served to add mockery to the junta's judicial
system. 

The Rangoon 18 richly deserved a hero's homecoming, but there should be no
illusion as to why they were freed. After all, they had behind them the
weight of a number of governments, and countless NGOs and individuals who
had worked tirelessly for their freedom. The activists had gambled and won
-- the generals blinked. If they were Burmese, their fate would surely have
been very different. 

Last week's detention of the foreign activists had also laid bare deep
divisions within Asean. Philippines President Joseph Estrada provided
exemplary leadership when he made no bones about demanding that the junta
''let his people go''. On the other hand, when Thailand's ''flexible
engagement'' rhetoric was put to the test, it turned out to be nothing but
hot air. 

Bangkok failed miserably to follow Manila's example to press for the
activists' release, and even Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan's expression
of personal support for the detained activists could not smooth over such a
shameful sell-out. For post-Suharto Indonesia, there was no official
reaction, but its diplomats did offer help to the detainees and their
families. 

Malaysia, however, was completely out of step. Foreign Minister Abdullah
Badawi said he had no sympathy for Malaysians who enter other countries and
consciously commit wrongdoings. Such an insensitive stance came as no
surprise -- anyone caught doing the same in Kuala Lumpur would be similarly
punished. 

Surely any governments who throw activists into prison for handing out
leaflets, especially ones which merely express support for the democratic
aspirations of the people, must be condemned. Such muzzling of dissidents
would be severely criticised if it were to occur in Thailand. Likewise, the
Burmese junta has no right to detain anyone -- whether local or foreign --
for such innocuous acts. True, the 18 foreign activists may have broken a
number of the junta's laws, but such repressive laws are evidently against
international norms. 



That said -- and now that the 18 are released -- perhaps it's also apt to
reflect on whether it was wise for foreigners to be leafleting in the
streets of Rangoon, no matter how righteous the cause is. The struggle for
democracy in Burma should be determined by the Burmese. Yes, as members of
the global community we should support that struggle. However, whether
going to Rangoon and leafleting Burmese ''not to give up hope'' is going
way beyond ''support'' is a question that should be discussed by foreign
NGOs. 



In some countries such direct actions would have seriously backfired. For
example, a few years ago Malaysia saw a number of foreign activists slip
into the country and chain themselves to trees to protest against the
rapacious logging of Sarawak's rainforests. The authorities wasted no time
in painting them as outsiders telling Malaysians how to run their country,
and having an iron grip on the media, the government had no problems in
rallying citizens to back its stance. 



But given the level of opposition to the Burmese regime, the situation may
be different. It did not, however, stop the generals from trying to exploit
the foreign intervention. Indeed the Burmese media had a field day in
depicting the 18 as alien saboteurs bent on ''inciting unrest'', and
ridiculing the democratic opposition as a tool of foreign agents. 



With the saga of the Rangoon 18 now over, global attention can now focus on
the continuing drama at Anyarsu bridge where opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi is holding her ground since she was stopped from proceeding to Bassein
seven days ago. 



The noose on the junta is being tightened. Suu Kyi has demanded the junta
convene the parliament by this Friday or face unspecified ''consequences''.
Last week, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan requested an urgent
visit by his envoy for talks which was subsequently rejected by the junta.
And last Wednesday, eight leading nations, including Japan, began a
concerted action to press the junta into opening dialogue with the
opposition. 



The military has bowed to international pressure and freed the 18 foreign
activists. It's now time for the junta to free 45 million Burmese from its
dictatorship. 



The Nation