[Fwd: Malaysia's Moral Blackout]

[freeburma@xxxxxxxxx]

Sheryll Stothard wrote:
> 
> Published in
> TheSUN , Malaysia
> column: WYSIWYG (Saturday  24/8/96)
> 
> Malaysia?s Moral Blackout
> by Sheryll Stothard
> 
> A media release I received last week ended with a quote from Cenpeace
> spokesperson, Fan Yew Teng: ?Last week, we had an electricity blackout
> and our Prime Minister said he was ashamed. This week, we have a moral
> blackout and no one talks about it.?
>         He was referring to the five-day state visit of General Than
> Shwe, head of Burma?s - oh sorry, - Myanmar?s State Law and Order
> Restoration Council (SLORC).
>         As a Malaysian, I have to share in the shame and question the
> inconsistency in our foreign policy as far as genocidal butchers are
> concerned. As a taxpayer, I protest that some of my tax dollars have been
> spent on hosting a representative from one of the most repressive,
> immoral and backward ?governments? in the world.
>         I am not an activist. In fact, I frequently am irritated by the
> holier-than-thou exhortations NGOs are sometimes given to. Yet, in this
> situation, I am sure I echo the feelings of many non-NGO, non-activist
> Malaysians as far as the SLORC is concerned.
>         Why do I feel so strongly about this? Why can?t I accept ASEAN?s
> policy of ?constructive engagement? with the SLORC?
>         For one thing, I cannot reconcile myself with Malaysia?s split
> identity problem when it comes to human rights abuses in foreign
> countries. Flying in the face of established Western agendas, over the
> last decade, Malaysia has been laudably vocal in condemning human rights
> abuses in places like Bosnia, the Middle East, Chechnya and South Africa.
>         However, that well-known Malaysian moral outrage tapers off into
> a whimper as we get closer to home. We dismiss the genocidal atrocities
> in East Timor even to the extent of saying that Malaysians who get killed
> in the crossfire deserve it. Indonesia is a member of ASEAN and we cannot
> criticise our partners - that seems to be the underlying reason.
>         With Myanmar, we don?t even have that excuse, however feeble. Why
> invite Southeast Asia?s version of Radovan Karadzic as a state guest to
> our country? The economic reasons aren?t even compelling enough to
> warrant mention. Surely, we?re making enough money economically
> plundering Vietnam, Cambodia and various  impoverished African states.
> Why start acting like desperate vultures looking for a fast buck in
> Myanmar?
>         Take away the bleeding heart liberalist rhetoric of Western
> proponents of democracy. Take away even the personality cult of Nobel
> Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi. Take away Western threats of
> economic sanctions. Take away all that, even John Boorman?s silly movie
> Beyond Rangoon. What do we have?
>         The SLORC was formed in September 1988 and promptly declared
> martial law. This was just an academic continuance of the brutal regime
> of Ne Win and his military cronies who assumed power after a coup in
> 1962. Earlier in 1988, the army gunned down pro-democracy students and
> started a nationwide offensive against the country?s best and brightest -
> young people who were the only hope Myanmar had for a long time.
>         How can anyone shoot their children? Why bother to educate them
> and then gun them down like defenseless animals in the streets? Even the
> SLORC doesn?t bother denying that this happened. How can Malaysia
> officially accept this? Why rant and rave about Bosnia when we accept,
> condone and even encourage the same in Myanmar? What does that say about
> us?
>         Malaysia takes pride in the fact that Islam is its official
> religion. Malaysians are frequently referred and looked up to by the
> international Muslim community as respected spokespersons for the faith.
> Yet, we have invited a representative of a ?government? responsible for
> the decimation and ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in the Arakan
> area of Myanmar.
>         Since the SLORC took over till 1992, over 260,000 Muslim
> Myanmarese have fled the country. Backed by the SLORC, a border
> development programme was introduced for the purpose of forcibly removing
> the Muslim population from the country?s north-western frontier. The
> SLORC says that there are 690,000 Muslims in the Arakanese area. Muslim
> groups and the Bangladeshi government calculate the population at 1.4
> million. That?s quite a lot of Muslims for the SLORC to kick out, rape,
> maim and kill.
>         I have been using the word ?government? loosely in reference to
> the SLORC. Well, technically and morally, I am wrong and so is anyone
> else who thinks so.
>         In May 1990, the National League for Democracy won a landslide
> victory in Myanmar?s general elections, winning 392 of the 485 seats
> available, despite the harsh conditions imposed on the NLD and on Aung
> San Suu Kyi by the military.
>         When it was time to hand over power to the elected government,
> the SLORC responded by throwing  NLD MP?s into jail. Many have been
> tortured and killed since.
>         So who have we invited to Malaysia and alligned ourselves to? The
> leader of military generals who are completely indiscriminate in their
> willingness to kill and enslave the people of Myanmar.
>         To businessmen who have jumped on the bandwagon to Myanmar, some
> cautionary advice is in order. Even if you are, as most businessmen are,
> completely amoral, doing business with the SLORC is a huge investment
> risk. You might initially make some money off the blood spilled by a
> population enslaved by the SLORC. But enjoy the short ride while it
> lasts. If the SLORC can decimate and kill its own people, it is unlikely
> that they will honour any agreement made with foreigners the moment a
> higher bidder - whether Asian or Western - turns up.
>         Malaysians have a responsibility to ensure that our reputation
> for tolerance and moral integrity in this region is not compromised. The
> future of Myanmar is in the hands of ASEAN, not the West. We are in the
> position to effect much needed change in that country. In light of the
> SLORC?s history, ?constructive engagement? is not the way to go. We are
> not doing the people of Myanmar a favour by inviting their killers to our
> country to talk business. Instead, we have justified the oppression. And
> in the case of Malaysian companies doing business there, we?re just
> twisting the knife in deeper.
>         And for that, I am truly and deeply ashamed. Surely, we are
> better than that. Or are we?
> 
> Sheryll Stothard
> Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
> sheryll@xxxxxxxxxxxx

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