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Wisdom in wooing Myanmar
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Wisdom in wooing Myanmar
The Statesman (New Delhi)
December 5, 2000
If the North-east is to become stable, politically, economically and
security-wise, then it?s time that those of that region and policy
makers in India realised that the bridge between India and South-east
Asia is not the North-east. It is Myanmar, writes SANJOY AZARIKA
IN the past years, Myan-mar?s military rulers and diplomats have gone on
a foreign policy offensive aimed at winning friends in South and
South-east Asia, attracting multilateral and mul-tinational investment
into their impoverished land and exorcising their dismal human rights
record. Apart from the economic oppor-tunities that this campaign will
develop, it is also aimed at gaining two basic things: credibility and
accept-ability.
These two virtues are surely among the most difficult to achieve for any
individual, community or nation and even more so for a nation such as
Myanmar (I like the country?s old name, Burma, far better) which has
been isolated from the world by a secretive regime since the 1960s and
which has cracked down mercilessly on its domestic detractors.
Credibility and acceptability become tougher goals to reach when there
is a personality such as Aung San Syu Kyi, the Nobel Prize winner, who
keeps challenging the junta at every oppor-tunity, who is an
internationally respected figure, and whose rights are severely
curtailed even today.
Mrs Syu Kyi is under house arrest and is allowed virtually no visitors
especially after she was detained when she tried to break out of the
govern-ment-imposed isolation and take a trip out into the country by
train.
The question arises here: how much and why does the State Peace
Development Council fear this one person, this frail woman who cannot
even travel through her own country without inviting Yangon?s wrath? No
amount of defensive statements and criticism of the outside world by the
Myanmarese government can answer this convincingly. After all, you need
to carry conviction if you are to win credibility and acceptance.
This is why the visits of General Maung Aye, the Myanmarese military
chief and his high-profile delegation, including the polished foreign
minister U Win Aung, and that of the earlier visit of the low-profile
home minister, assume significance. Indians and Myanmarese have had
historic links. Apart from being the birth place of Buddhism and the
various pilgrimage sites, India?s Independence movement and the role of
Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were especially imp-ortant for
countries such as Myanmar and others in the colonial vice.
The last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah died in lonely exile in Yangon and
more recently, the Indian National Army of Subhash Chandra Bose marched
through Myanmar?s hills and plains, with the Japanese, in an effort to
liberate India. But what many do not remember is an event in the 13th
century which changed the face of North-east India as we know it today.
A princely member of the Shan community, at the trijunction of China?s
Yunnan province, Myanmar and northern Thailand, moved his ancestral
kingdom with his followers and travelled to Assam, over the Patkai
Range. This was the coming of Su Ka Pha, the first king of the Ahom
dynasty which was to rule Assam for about 600 years, until the British
overthrew the last Ahom king.
There was a Myanmarese cause for the end of the Ahom kingdom: the Ahoms
were defeated and devastated by Myanmarese invasions at the start of the
19th century. They appealed to the British for help. The British gave a
lending hand and added Assam, with its great and rich valley and verdant
forests, as the last jewel to the British Crown. The defeated Myanmarese
renounced all claims to Assam th-rough the Treaty of Yandaboo of 1826.
Over the past years, India has had a tacit understanding with the
military side of the administration in Myan-mar. Essentially, this
involved limited cooperation aimed at curbing the activities of
insurgent groups in the region and based in Myanmar.
These have included both factions of the National Socialist Council of
Nagaland, the United Liberation Front of Assam and a few Manipuri
factions. Myanmar has been the historic link for the North-east
insurgents and China: T Muivah walked across the Myan-marese jungles to
Yunnan in 1964 with the first ba-nd of Naga guerrillas. In his
foot-steps fol-lowed the Mizos. The China con-nection was officially
snapped in 1976 but recent dis-closures show that the contacts are
alive.
While India toned down its public anti-Myanmar rhetoric in the 1990s, it
also actively sought Myanmarese help in combating the North-east
insurgents. One of the first major cooperative strikes was a pincer
movement involving Indian security forces and the Myanmarese army a few
years ago, when they moved against a joint group of the NSCN, Ulfa and
the People?s Liberation Army of Manipur on the Indo-Myanmarese border.
But the bonhomie was shortlived: the announcement of the Jawaharlal
Nehru Award to Mrs Suu Kyi ended further cooperation and infu-riated the
Myan-marese. But quiet con-tacts over the years involving former defence
secretary NN Vohra and then more visits by the for-mer Army Chief Ved
Malik (two in 2000 alone) and a recognition by New Del-hi that me-re
moral and politi-cal support (and to a degree, material backing) to
?pro-democracy? forces was marginalising whatever role India could have
in its large neighbour.
One major consideration was the huge influence that China yields today
in Myanmar not only is it the largest trading partner, but large numbers
of Chinese have moved into northern Myanmar over these past years,
predominantly as traders and businessmen. It is the biggest supplier of
arms to Yangon and was a political ally during the time of international
ostracism when the world shunned Myanmar becau-se of its crackdown on
democracy and human rights and its tolerance of
poppy cultivation and heroin production.
That is why Gen. Maung Aye?s visit assumes great importance for it
indicates that, however tentatively, Myanmar is now trying to tread a
middle path between the Asian giants. It is in this context that the
foreign minister?s remarks should be viewed.
To a small group of Indian reporters, Mr Win Aung declared that Myanmar
would not allow any foreign country to set up any base on its territory:
the reference was to a question about the alleged Chinese presence in
Coco Island of the Myanmarese mainland which enabled China to monitor
activities on the missile-testing ranges at Balasore and
Chandipur-on-Sea in Orissa.
In addition, he said that as far as the North-eastern militants were
con-cerned, that Myanmar would coop-erate with India to tackle this
issue at the local military levels and on the border. Myanmar would
not, he declared, allow any group to ?use our territory to make trouble?
against India. In addition, he acknowledged that private shipments of
Chinese weapons through Myanmar to the North-east did take place and
that Myanmar would now ?exert every effort? to stop such shipments.
These are bold statements from the Myanmarese leadership, given its
proximity to China. Of further significance was Mr Win Aung?s remark
that they were prepared to welcome back political exiles and Opposition
leaders with ?open arms?. A substantial number of Myanmarese refugees,
especially from the Chin ethnic group, are living in Mizoram and New
Delhi. ?They are our brothers, we are not evil and one day they will
come back,? the minister said.
In other words, he was saying that the exiles could stay on in India as
long as they wanted. Myanmar was not going to put pressure on India to
push them out. The additional economic cooperation with India is also
welcome. Myanmar has opened up to Indian government enterprise, if not
to private businessmen, with highways being built by Indian
public-sector companies in western Myanmar to connect that region to
the North-east.
All these costs are being met by New Delhi. On the security front, there
have been a series of strikes against SS Khaplang?s faction of the
National Socialist Council of Nagaland, whose rival group, led by Muivah
and Isaak Swu, are negotiating peace with India. It is interesting to
note that the military in Myanmar has not hit the bases of the Muivah
group, leading to conjecture about its relationship with that faction.
But it appears that India is finally moving with a sense of coherence as
far as its relationship with its eastern neighbour is concerned. For, if
the North-east is to become stable, politi-cally, economically and
security-wise, then it is time that those of that region and policy
makers in India realised that the bridge between India and South-east
Asia is not the North-east. It is Myanmar. The North-east and South-east
Asia are bridgeheads. Myanmar is the key.
So while we must continue to assure the exiles of our support for
peaceful democratic movements and give them sanctuary here, we must also
develop closer relations with the government of the day in Myanmar.
For one day, surely, democracy will return to Myanmar, perhaps not in
the precise form that the dissenters seek or in the form that the SPDC
is prepared to concede.
But by that time, if realistic assessments and logic guide our policies,
India will have emerged as a strong, stable and reliable economic,
political and security partner for Myanmar, enabling that country to
develop an evenly balanced relationship with China and South-east Asian
countries.
(The author, formerly of the New York Times, is Senior Fellow, Centre
for Policy Research, New Delhi.)
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<b><font size=+3>Wisdom in wooing Myanmar</font></b>
<p><b>The Statesman (New Delhi)</b>
<br><b>December 5, 2000</b>
<p><b>If the North-east is to become stable, politically, economically
and security-wise, then it?s time that those of that region and policy
makers in India realised that the bridge between India and South-east Asia
is not the North-east. It is Myanmar, writes SANJOY AZARIKA</b>
<p>IN the past years, Myan-mar?s military rulers and diplomats have gone
on a foreign policy offensive aimed at winning friends in South and South-east
Asia, attracting multilateral and mul-tinational investment into their
impoverished land and exorcising their dismal human rights record. Apart
from the economic oppor-tunities that this campaign will develop, it is
also aimed at gaining two basic things: credibility and accept-ability.
<p>These two virtues are surely among the most difficult to achieve for
any individual, community or nation and even more so for a nation such
as Myanmar (I like the country?s old name, Burma, far better) which has
been isolated from the world by a secretive regime since the 1960s and
which has cracked down mercilessly on its domestic detractors.
<p>Credibility and acceptability become tougher goals to reach when there
is a personality such as Aung San Syu Kyi, the Nobel Prize winner, who
keeps challenging the junta at every oppor-tunity, who is an internationally
respected figure, and whose rights are severely curtailed even today.
<p>Mrs Syu Kyi is under house arrest and is allowed virtually no visitors
especially after she was detained when she tried to break out of the govern-ment-imposed
isolation and take a trip out into the country by train.
<p>The question arises here: how much and why does the State Peace Development
Council fear this one person, this frail woman who cannot even travel through
her own country without inviting Yangon?s wrath? No amount of defensive
statements and criticism of the outside world by the Myanmarese government
can answer this convincingly. After all, you need to carry conviction if
you are to win credibility and acceptance.
<p>This is why the visits of General Maung Aye, the Myanmarese military
chief and his high-profile delegation, including the polished foreign minister
U Win Aung, and that of the earlier visit of the low-profile home minister,
assume significance. Indians and Myanmarese have had historic links. Apart
from being the birth place of Buddhism and the various pilgrimage sites,
India?s Independence movement and the role of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal
Nehru were especially imp-ortant for countries such as Myanmar and others
in the colonial vice.
<br>The last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah died in lonely exile in Yangon
and more recently, the Indian National Army of Subhash Chandra Bose marched
through Myanmar?s hills and plains, with the Japanese, in an effort to
liberate India. But what many do not remember is an event in the 13th century
which changed the face of North-east India as we know it today.
<p>A princely member of the Shan community, at the trijunction of China?s
Yunnan province, Myanmar and northern Thailand, moved his ancestral kingdom
with his followers and travelled to Assam, over the Patkai Range. This
was the coming of Su Ka Pha, the first king of the Ahom dynasty which was
to rule Assam for about 600 years, until the British overthrew the last
Ahom king.
<p>There was a Myanmarese cause for the end of the Ahom kingdom: the Ahoms
were defeated and devastated by Myanmarese invasions at the start of the
19th century. They appealed to the British for help. The British gave a
lending hand and added Assam, with its great and rich valley and verdant
forests, as the last jewel to the British Crown. The defeated Myanmarese
renounced all claims to Assam th-rough the Treaty of Yandaboo of 1826.
<p>Over the past years, India has had a tacit understanding with the military
side of the administration in Myan-mar. Essentially, this involved limited
cooperation aimed at curbing the activities of insurgent groups in the
region and based in Myanmar.
<p>These have included both factions of the National Socialist Council
of Nagaland, the United Liberation Front of Assam and a few Manipuri factions.
Myanmar has been the historic link for the North-east insurgents and China:
T Muivah walked across the Myan-marese jungles to Yunnan in 1964 with the
first ba-nd of Naga guerrillas. In his foot-steps fol-lowed the Mizos.
The China con-nection was officially snapped in 1976 but recent dis-closures
show that the contacts are alive.
<p>While India toned down its public anti-Myanmar rhetoric in the 1990s,
it also actively sought Myanmarese help in combating the North-east insurgents.
One of the first major cooperative strikes was a pincer movement involving
Indian security forces and the Myanmarese army a few years ago, when they
moved against a joint group of the NSCN, Ulfa and the People?s Liberation
Army of Manipur on the Indo-Myanmarese border.
<p>But the bonhomie was shortlived: the announcement of the Jawaharlal
Nehru Award to Mrs Suu Kyi ended further cooperation and infu-riated the
Myan-marese. But quiet con-tacts over the years involving former defence
secretary NN Vohra and then more visits by the for-mer Army Chief Ved Malik
(two in 2000 alone) and a recognition by New Del-hi that me-re moral and
politi-cal support (and to a degree, material backing) to ?pro-democracy?
forces was marginalising whatever role India could have in its large neighbour.
<p>One major consideration was the huge influence that China yields today
in Myanmar not only is it the largest trading partner, but large numbers
of Chinese have moved into northern Myanmar over these past years, predominantly
as traders and businessmen. It is the biggest supplier of arms to Yangon
and was a political ally during the time of international ostracism when
the world shunned Myanmar becau-se of its crackdown on democracy and human
rights and its
tolerance of poppy cultivation and heroin production.
<p>That is why Gen. Maung Aye?s visit assumes great importance for it indicates
that, however tentatively, Myanmar is now trying to tread a middle path
between the Asian giants. It is in this context that the foreign minister?s
remarks should be viewed.
<p>To a small group of Indian reporters, Mr Win Aung declared that Myanmar
would not allow any foreign country to set up any base on its territory:
the reference was to a question about the alleged Chinese presence in Coco
Island of the Myanmarese mainland which enabled China to monitor activities
on the missile-testing ranges at Balasore and Chandipur-on-Sea in Orissa.
<p>In addition, he said that as far as the North-eastern militants were
con-cerned, that Myanmar would coop-erate with India to tackle this issue
at the local military levels and on the border. Myanmar would not,
he declared, allow any group to ?use our territory to make trouble? against
India. In addition, he acknowledged that private shipments of Chinese weapons
through Myanmar to the North-east did take place and that Myanmar would
now ?exert every effort? to stop such shipments.
<p>These are bold statements from the Myanmarese leadership, given its
proximity to China. Of further significance was Mr Win Aung?s remark that
they were prepared to welcome back political exiles and Opposition leaders
with ?open arms?. A substantial number of Myanmarese refugees, especially
from the Chin ethnic group, are living in Mizoram and New Delhi. ?They
are our brothers, we are not evil and one day they will come back,? the
minister said.
<p>In other words, he was saying that the exiles could stay on in India
as long as they wanted. Myanmar was not going to put pressure on India
to push them out. The additional economic cooperation with India is also
welcome. Myanmar has opened up to Indian government enterprise, if not
to private businessmen, with highways being built by Indian public-sector
companies in western Myanmar to connect that region to the North-east.
<p>All these costs are being met by New Delhi. On the security front, there
have been a series of strikes against SS Khaplang?s faction of the National
Socialist Council of Nagaland, whose rival group, led by Muivah and Isaak
Swu, are negotiating peace with India. It is interesting to note that the
military in Myanmar has not hit the bases of the Muivah group, leading
to conjecture about its relationship with that faction.
<p>But it appears that India is finally moving with a sense of coherence
as far as its relationship with its eastern neighbour is concerned. For,
if the North-east is to become stable, politi-cally, economically and security-wise,
then it is time that those of that region and policy makers in India realised
that the bridge between India and South-east Asia is not the North-east.
It is Myanmar. The North-east and South-east Asia are bridgeheads. Myanmar
is the key.
<p>So while we must continue to assure the exiles of our support for peaceful
democratic movements and give them sanctuary here, we must also develop
closer relations with the government of the day in Myanmar.
<p>For one day, surely, democracy will return to Myanmar, perhaps not in
the precise form that the dissenters seek or in the form that the SPDC
is prepared to concede.
<p>But by that time, if realistic assessments and logic guide our policies,
India will have emerged as a strong, stable and reliable economic, political
and security partner for Myanmar, enabling that country to develop an evenly
balanced relationship with China and South-east Asian countries.
<p>(The author, formerly of the New York Times, is Senior Fellow, Centre
for Policy Research, New Delhi.)
<p> </html>
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