Push Burma on democracy

http://www.bangkokpost.com/041108_News/04Nov2008_news18.php

Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat began the obligatory nine-nation Asean tour yesterday. The first country he visited was Laos, and he will be heading shortly for Vietnam. He must travel to Cambodia - protocol alone demands that - but he met Prime Minister Hun Sen on the sidelines of the Asean-Europe Meeting (Asem) in Beijing late last month.


That puts the primary focus on the eastern side of Thailand, where trade is the major topic, as well as the vital border talks with Cambodia. This is slightly encouraging. For a few moments there in Beijing, it looked like Mr Somchai was going to squander more goodwill on another unpopular campaign on behalf of the odious Burmese dictatorship.




In Beijing, Mr Somchai already went far beyond any necessary fawning over the brutal rulers of Asean's unhappiest member-state. One cannot choose one's neighbours, but the prime minister indicated far too strongly that the Burmese government is Thailand's friend. On the contrary, it is at best an embarrassment and at times a downright unfriendly neighbour. For the benefit of Asem, whose European members have applied the world's strongest sanctions on Burma, Mr Somchai dragged out that tired old canard: If the world pours respect, praise and aid on the dictatorship, the generals will respond with democratic reform and freedom for the heavily oppressed opposition.


The history of Asean, of course, proves the opposite. The regional group finally held its nose and admitted Burma as the 10th, last member in 1997, and appealed to the generals to cut out its worst anti-democratic excesses and consider moving towards a free and democratic regime. Since then, Burma has imprisoned hundreds of political prisoners, kept the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest and, in September 2007, murdered monks and other demonstrators who were protesting against steep price increases.


Mr Somchai had a point when he told the Europeans that the terrible human and economic toll of Cyclone Nargis in May had also brought some positive effects. The United Nations, Thai officials and international aid agencies battered down the cruel and bureaucratic walls of the dictatorship. The generals were shamed or forced into changing their minds, and aid was finally allowed into the devastated delta and Rangoon regions.


The prime minister saw this as a progressive step. Unfortunately, it is not. Cyclone relief is not political progress. The Burmese authorities have allowed aid, but no political advance. The Tripartite Core Group of Burma, the UN and Asean have been able to deliver help to some of the storm victims. On the other hand, the Burmese government last week arrested another group of members of Mrs Suu Kyi's political party for no reason other than peaceful political protest of the sort that goes unremarked even in undemocratic countries such as Vietnam or Asem host China.


It is difficult to know why Thai foreign policy is so supportive of the Burmese dictatorship. Mr Somchai's predecessor Samak Sundaravej was full of praise for the "good Buddhists" who rule Burma. The prosecutor has charged Mr Somchai's brother-in-law Thaksin Shinawatra with helping Burma too much, in the form of hugely generous, possibly illegal loans.


Just in recent times, Burma has flooded Thailand with drugs, refused to cooperate in discussions about its estimated one million illegal immigrants, and used Thai territory to attack its separatist groups. For the sake of peace, Thailand needs correct relations with Burma. But it shouldn't pander to the junta.