http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/200902/2496914.htm?desktop
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda has criticised Burma's human rights record and its failure to make lack of progress towards democracy.
However, speaking to Radio Australia's Connect Asia program, Dr Wirajuda said the international community must stay engaged with Burma, despite the fact that diplomatic pressure and sanctions have so far proved ineffective in achieving democratic change.
Dr Wirajuda says the regional problem created by the outflow of Muslim Rohingya refugees from Burma into Indonesia and Thailand highlights the need for an integrated approach from other countries.
"There is a sign of moving here and as a process of course, you cannot expect that we can change tomorrow," he said.
"But we are all working and in fact I would say that the neighbouring countries of Burma, not only ASEAN, have also worked together."
Dr Wirajuda is in Sydney for two days of high-level discussions with the Australian government.
Calls for Australia to lift Indonesian travel warnings
Earlier in his visit to Australia Dr Wirajuda said he would keep raising the issue of Australian travel warnings, despite his latest appeal for them to be lifted being turned down.
Australia, which has had a travel warning in place for Indonesia since the Bali nightclub bombings in 2002, says travel advisories are assessed regularly on the basis of expert advice.
But Dr Wirajuda says there hasn't been a terrorist bombing in Indonesia for three years, and says any potential threats are often exaggerated.
"Indonesia is one of the most successful countries in combating terrorism so the potential threat was often overblown, our police have been very effective in their task to combat terrorism," he said.
He told Radio Australia that Canberra should follow the example set by other countries and lift its travel warning.
"It's more a matter of Australians to decide, of course, but it has to be commensurated through the developments on the ground," he said.
"First there has been no incidents of terrorism bombings in Indonesia in the past three years and countries like the United States and Canada have lifted their travel warnings since last year.
"The fact there has been quite a flowing of tourists from Australia, it is also a fact, the Australian people themselves decide whether to travel to Indonesia by their own judgement, so it is in this context that we see that it is timely for the Australian government to lift the travel advice.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Indonesia criticises Burma's lack of progress towards democracy
Korea: Frenetic Clinton Hits Asia Running
http://www.mysinchew.com/node/21482?tid=37
Foreign 2009-02-20 16:37
South Koreans gather as they welcome the visit of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton near the U.S. embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, 20 Feb 2009. (Photo courtesy: AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, right, talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during their meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, 20 Feb 2009. (Photo courtesy: AP Photo/Jo Yong-Hak, Pool)
1 of 2SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA: Dashing through a kaleidoscopic tour of the far East in her first outing as U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton is back in full campaign mode.
But instead of selling herself as presidential candidate, Clinton is pitching the still-emerging foreign policy of her former rival, President Barack Obama.
While cautiously projecting Obama's careful diplomatic stances in her official meetings with diplomats and foreign leaders, Clinton has unleashed the ebullient public persona she showed in the final giddy stages of her unsuccessful 2008 campaign.
Clinton has appeared unabashedly delighted soaking up affectionate, sometimes gushing reactions that she evoked among foreign officials and onlookers.
At the Jakarta airport in Indonesia, she beamed as she was serenaded by rows of singing, swaying schoolchildren. Later, she visited the headquarters of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, waving and smiling broadly when hundreds of employees chanted "Hee-ler-ry," Hee-ler-ry" as she entered.
The bloc's secretary general, Surin Pitsuwan, appeared smitten and spoke in glowing terms about the former first lady, presenting her with an arrangement of 32 yellow flowers.
The tone of Clinton's diplomatic charm offensive was a significant departure from the traditional approach of some previous secretaries of state, who were on the road a great deal but tended to be more comfortable in private settings than out in public.
Her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, an academic, was far more reserved and less effusive, while Colin Powell, a retired general and President George W. Bush's first secretary of state, was a portrait in stoic, gentile statesmanship.
But midway through her weeklong tour of Asia, it is clear Clinton has brought the urgent showmanship of an election season politician to the patient practice of diplomacy.
She has adopted a grueling public schedule with gusto.
In visits to Japan, Indonesia and South Korea _ China is still to come _ Clinton has kept busy late until night, seemingly unaffected by jet lag as she crams in official meetings, local media appearances and visits to cultural sites, such as the venerable Meiji shrine in Tokyo.
Some of her appearances have mirrored the countless town halls of her campaign days. But instead of gymnasiums crowded with American voters, Clinton showed up at college auditoriums in Tokyo and South Korea, plying audiences with anecdotes and fielding questions on topics from motherhood to politics.
"Wow, I feel more like an advice columnist than a secretary of state today," she said to loud laughter when asked about the subject of love by one of several thousand students who gathered to hear her speak at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
"We could be here for hours!" she said in response to the next questioner who asked Clinton to describe her relationship with her daughter Chelsea.
She has waded into crowds despite nervous glances from her security detail, worked rope lines and happily taken time to pose for photos with pretty much anyone who has gotten close enough to ask for one.
And the enthusiastic responses, much like those she got at rallies on the campaign trail, seem to have energized her while the grueling pace has exhausted her traveling staff and local embassy employees, not to mention the reporters accompanying her on the trip.
There have been so many news conferences and interviews that the State Department's efficient team of transcribers has been overwhelmed and unable to produce transcripts of her appearances, sometimes for days.
Yet Clinton is clearly relishing the limelight, and not even natural disasters can stop her.
On her first morning abroad as America's top diplomat, Clinton was jolted awake by one of Japan's frequent minor earthquakes.
"It woke me up. It was like I was in one of those hotel vibrating beds and accidentally dropped in some quarters," she said, recalling the shaking in her 10th floor suite that roused her in Tokyo's pre-dawn hours on Tuesday after the long flight from Washington.
The early wake-up call did not, however, slow her down. That day, Clinton had at least 12 official events, beginning at the Shinto shrine at 8am and ending with a 9pm post-dinner meeting with Japan's main opposition leader.
In between, she greeted staff at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, met the Japanese foreign and defense ministers, signed a military agreement, held a news conference, had tea with Empress Michiko, gave interviews to three television networks and several Japanese newspapers, spoke to university students at a town hall meeting and ate dinner with the prime minister.
Arriving in Jakarta the next afternoon after a seven-and-half hour flight, Clinton crammed in what might normally be an entire day's worth of meetings in the remaining daylight and evening. Then, she had dinner with a group of civic leaders.
Early the next morning, she was at it again, appearing on Indonesia's most popular youth television program, an MTV-style show, telling the audience about her surprise when Obama asked her to become secretary of state, opining about her favorite bands and joking about her inability to sing. (By MATTHEW LEE/ AP)
The Global Listening Tour-HILLARY CLINTON
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/19/AR2009021903471_pf.html
The Global Listening Tour
On Her First Trip as Secretary of State, Clinton Shows How She'll Attempt to Repair the U.S. Image Worldwide
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 20, 2009; A01
SEOUL, Feb. 20 -- Hillary Rodham Clinton has a new campaign and message: The United States wants to listen.
To that end, on her first overseas trip as secretary of state, Clinton is talking a lot. Her schedule is packed with so many town halls, ceremonial events, television shows and meetings with community leaders that it has the feel of a presidential visit -- or even a presidential campaign.
Before departing tropical Indonesia on Thursday for snowbound Seoul, Clinton carved out an hour to chat with the Muslim nation's president. But she also appeared on a highly popular youth television show, "Dahsyat" ("Awesome"), met with a group of Indonesian journalists, answered questions on a radio program and went on a campaign-style walk through a lower-middle-class neighborhood, where she studied recycling efforts as hordes of Indonesians gathered around her. "I love your hat," she called out to a man in a New York Yankees baseball cap.
"There is a hunger for the United States to be present again," Clinton told reporters as she flew to Seoul. "Showing up is not all of life -- but it counts for a lot."
To a large extent, this is Clinton's new campaign -- repairing the U.S. image abroad. Her boss, President Obama, has helped ease the way simply by not being former president George W. Bush. But it is unclear whether all this public outreach will yield much beyond a few extra lines in the foreign news media, especially when America's policies -- and how they are viewed around the world -- are largely responsible for its image.
Everywhere she has gone in Asia, Clinton has tried to highlight some of the tangible ways that the Obama administration hopes to be different from its predecessor: a commitment to address climate change, the appointment of a Middle East peace envoy, a refocusing on Afghanistan and an effort to reach out to longtime U.S. antagonists such as Iran, North Korea and Burma.
The administration is so new that many of these shifts are still wisps of ideas, not fully formed policies. In some areas, such as relegating human rights in China to a side issue, it is uncertain whether Obama's team will do things much differently than Bush's.
But as every politician knows, the tone can make all the difference. Clinton has emphasized that she is looking for partnership -- or better yet, a "comprehensive partnership" -- on these issues.
Her pitch is that the problems of the world -- the financial crisis, climate change and extremism -- are so overwhelming that no country can handle them alone, certainly not the United States. Remember, she's saying, how the Bush administration went to war in Iraq virtually by itself (with Clinton's vote of approval)? That's in the past. We need help. And we want to listen.
"My trip here today is to hear your views, because I believe strongly that we learn from listening to one another," Clinton told students at Tokyo University on Tuesday. "And that is, for me, part of what this first trip of mine as secretary of state is about."
Clinton has made a big deal of her choice to go to the Pacific rim of Asia for her first trip, rather the standard European or Middle Eastern tour. Yet in many ways that has made her job easier: The U.S. image is pretty good here.
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs conducted a survey last year in the four countries Clinton is visiting this week -- China, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia -- and found that the United States outperformed China in political, diplomatic, economic and human capital "soft power," a favorite Clinton buzz phrase. Indeed, the survey concluded that the view of the United States in these countries, even majority Muslim Indonesia, is "largely positive."
Still, there are few better ambassadors for a listening tour than Clinton. And not because she has already conducted one -- the famous trip through New York state a decade ago when she contemplated a run for the U.S. Senate -- but because the world stage fits her like an old shoe.
She may still be mastering the finer points of arcane foreign policy issues -- a question about U.S. base logistics in Japan stumped her -- but she has quickly demonstrated that her many years in the public glare have left her with a politician's touch and a BlackBerry full of contacts.
After landing in Tokyo, she went to see Hirofume Nakasone, whom she first met 18 years ago, when he was a parliamentarian, and who laughingly pulled out a photo of the two of them looking much younger. As it happens, Nakasone is now Japan's foreign minister.
And she had tea with her old friend Empress Michiko, who almost never meets mere diplomats at her residence nestled in a forest in the center of the city. Yet the empress rushed out to clasp Clinton's hand and chat animatedly when the motorcade arrived.
Clinton's operating style differs significantly from those of her immediate predecessors. Colin L. Powell, a former general, surrounded himself with former military aides and spoke like he was giving a PowerPoint briefing. Condoleezza Rice, a wonky former professor, gathered around her a mix of deep foreign policy thinkers and savvy press aides, and delivered her messages in a blizzard of modifiers, caveats and subordinate clauses. Both Powell and Rice were very-early-to-office types who kept their schedules timed to military precision.
Clinton's immediate staff members are political operatives drawn from her Senate and first lady years. Traveling with her on this trip are Huma Abedin, a longtime aide who silently will hand Clinton a glass of water when her voice rasps during a briefing, and Kiki McLean, who once worked as a press aide for then-Gov. Bill Clinton at the Democratic Leadership Council.
The new secretary arrives at 8 a.m. at the State Department, where her office is stocked with a steady supply of New York state apples. Her schedule, even on the road, has a loose feel, with events never quite starting on time.
She appears to be enjoying herself immensely on her trip, despite a punishing pace from early in the morning to late at night. During a 9 p.m. dinner with community leaders in Indonesia, her exhausted aides were surprised at the constant laughter that burst out from her table.
She doesn't always talk with diplomatic nuance at this point, acting more like a senator as she answers questions. She generated headlines in South Korea with remarks on the succession question in North Korea, a topic that Rice probably would have avoided.
But Clinton has a politician's knack for words and a well-honed human touch. She told one of Japan's female astronauts that she had always wanted to be an astronaut when she was a little girl. She declined an invitation to sing on the Indonesian youth show, joking that she would drive the audience from the room. She roars with laughter, her head tilted back, when she hears something funny. And she speaks in simple and direct sentences, creating perfect sound bites.
It helps that she is already a world-famous figure, someone who is instantly greeted with awe and respect.
"It is glorious to meet you," exclaimed a Japanese student.
An Indonesian journalist burst out, "We love you both," referring to Clinton and Obama.
And in a front-page article, the Jakarta Post reported that "journalists held their breath" when Clinton arrived for a news briefing with the foreign minister. "She looks more beautiful than on TV," declared a reporter quoted in the article.
In Indonesia, a young democracy, people seemed especially intrigued that she was so quickly able to bury the hatchet with her once-bitter rival, Obama. When you are in politics, Clinton joked, "you have to have a high threshold for pain."
She "was very surprised" when Obama offered her the job, Clinton told a small group of Indonesian journalists who had covered the U.S. election. "It was not anything I had reason to expect or thought about," she said, and it was a "hard decision," but "President Obama was very persuasive in our conversations."
"President Obama is so focused on our problems at home," Clinton added. "He's not going to be able to travel as much as he wants to." So, she said, it is important "that I get out and do as much travel as possible to send a message that he wants the world to hear."
In other words, she'll be listening everywhere.
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NLD Criticizes Gambari-Japan Joint-statement
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=15161
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By WAI MOE Friday, February 20, 2009
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Ahead of the United Nations Security Council’s closed session on Burma on Friday, the main opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) said it disagreed with a joint-statement by UN Special Envoy to Burma Ibrahim Gambari and Japan’s foreign minister on Thursday.
Nyan Win, an NLD spokesperson, told The Irrawaddy, “The party issued two statements yesterday because we want to response to The United Nations Special Envoy to Burma Ibrahim Gambari’s co-statement with Japan’s foreign minister in Tokyo on February 12.”
“As well, as we want to make a clarification on our stand on unconditional dialogue as well as NLD willingness for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s trip to the country,” he said.
The joint-statement issued by Gambari and Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said they agreed to encourage the Burmese junta to hold general elections in 2010 in a form that could be accepted by the international community.
The NLD said it was concerned that the joint statement was not consistent with NLD demands as well as resolutions by the UN General Assembly which honor the 1990 election results.
In the joint-statement , Hirofumi Nakasone said, “Even though there are few positive moves by the Myanmar [Burma] government, it's a huge step for them to have announced that they would hold a general election in 2010, compared with two past decades of silence about its democratization process.”
“If they [the junta] take favorable action, the international community should react in a manner that encourages more positive actions,” he said.
Japan is one of the main donor countries to Burma. Japan cut its assistance to Burma after the crackdown on demonstrators in September 2007. During the crackdown, Japanese videographer Kenji Nagai was killed by Burmese security forces. Japan has never applied economic sanctions against the Burmese junta, as have the United States and European countries.
In early 2006, Japan, along with China and Russian, rejected a proposal to take the Burma issue to the UN Security Council. Analysts say that Japan has sometimes worked to tone down criticism of Burma in the UN, because it wants to counter Beijing’s influence in the regime.
In its statement, the NLD also outlined three policy principles that it said were presented to Gambari when he met with the NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD officials during his most recent visit to Burma.
The first was the release of all political prisoners unconditionally. Human rights groups claim there are more than 2,100 political prisoners in Burma’s prisons.
The second was face-to-face dialogue between Suu Kyi and the junta’s leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, to resolve political problems in the country. The third was a review of the 2008 junta-backed-constitution.
The NLD has said it will not take part in the election unless their demands are met.
When Gambari asked what was the first NLD priority, the officials said it was the release of all political prisoners, according to the statement.
NLD sources have said that on Gambari’s visit to Burma in August 2008, the party met with him twice. In the first meeting, Gambari pushed the NLD to join the 2010 election. Party officials criticized his request, saying it went beyond his role as a mediator.
The United Nationalities Alliance, which represents ethnic parties in Burma, declared its support of the NLD on Friday, calling for the release of political prisoners, a political dialogue and opposition to the 2010 general election.
It urged the UN and the international community “to refrain from supporting the regime’s unilateral roadmap [to democracy] and planed election.”
Following Gambari’s recent four-day trip to Burma, the Karen National Union (KNU) issued a statement on Thursday.
“We are concerned that once again a United Nations envoy has visited Burma without also meeting with genuine representatives of Burma’s ethnic nationalities, such as the Karen National Union,” the statement said.
The KNU said ethnic people should not be sidelined in any future discussion on a national reconciliation process in Burma.
Junta Declares War on Lawyers
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=15145
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By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER Thursday, February 19, 2009
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MAE SOT — To be a lawyer in military-ruled Burma is to court danger, invite arrest and risk being jailed in the country’s notorious prisons.
It is the price to be paid for what, in most countries, would be standard practice for the legal profession: defending a person facing a trial for an alleged crime that he or she has been charged with.
But the ongoing targeting of lawyers reveals that life marches to a different tune in the South-east Asian country that has been under the oppressive grip of a military dictatorship for the past 47 years.
More so if the legal battles involve the countries pro-democracy activists who dare to stand up, speak out and be counted among the eternally harassed opposition. More so if the ones facing charges in what are largely political trials have links to the National League for Democracy (NLD), the largest opposition party.
Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min is among the fortunate, though. The soft-spoken, slightly-built lawyer gave the authorities the slip in Rangoon, the former capital, and fled to Mae Sot in December to relate disturbing accounts of the new pressure on his profession.
"It is difficult for pro-democracy activists to get a fair trial in Burma," said the 29-year-old during a late-night interview in the Thai town near the Burmese border that has become home to many political activists who have fled oppression back home. "I did not have rights to talk with the political prisoners in private to prepare for their cases."
"There were times when a request to meet my clients was denied," added Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min, whose legal practice has largely been dedicated to helping political activist from the NLD arrested for protesting against the junta. "There were always men from military intelligence and the special branch monitoring the discussions I was having with my clients."
What prompted his flight to Thailand was when a judge hearing a case where Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min was appearing charged him and his colleague for coming to the defence of three clients during a trial in October last year. "Our clients protested in court by turning their backs and saying that they didn’t trust the trial process," he revealed.
Not so lucky was his colleague, Nyi Nyi Htwe. The latter was arrested at a teashop on Oct. 29 and is currently serving a six months jail term. The same sentence was handed down to Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min in absentia.
Since then, three other lawyers appearing for pro-democracy activists have been jailed. In early February, the authorities issued arrest warrants for six lawyers who have been defending political activists.
And if not that, the junta has pursued an alternative route to bar opposition figures from securing legal aid during their political trials. The outcome of a case that ended in mid-February is typical: the lawyers chosen to assist two elected parliamentarians were barred from attending court proceedings until their clients were sentenced to 15 years in jail.
"There is no rule of law in Burma," says Bo Kyi, a former political prisoner who heads the Assistant Association for Political Prisoners in Burma, a human rights group based in this town. "There is no separation of powers, no independence of the judiciary."
"It is getting more difficult for lawyers to defend political activists," he revealed. "The lawyers who appear for the activists are very brave. They don’t get much money and they know that their practice will suffer."
And the need for such lawyers with courage could not have been greater, he explained, in the wake of the on-going crackdown of all dissenting voices and the harsh jail terms handed down to leading, respected political activists.
In November last year, the courts handed down verdicts for 215 political activists who were linked to the pro-democracy street protests, led by thousands of Buddhists monks, held in September 2007.
A 21-year-old student was given a 104-year-sentence, a Buddhist monk who led the protests was given a 68-year-jail term, and leading female dissident was imprisoned for 65 years.
The junta’s aggressive use of the courts to target all political dissidents became clear in late 2003, following a 106-year-sentence handed down to a leading member of the Shan ethnic community, says Aung Htoo, general secretary of the Burma Lawyers’ Council. "Since that time the regime started using the judiciary as a tool of oppression."
"This is the worst period for the non-independence of the judiciary," he added. "We are seeing outrageous rulings. The situation was bad before, but not this bad."
And the judgments delivered after the political trials do not emerge from the court proceedings either. "The Home Ministry instructs the judges and the prosecutors about the verdict they want," says U Myo, a former state prosecutor who fled Burma for Thailand.
"They have to follow the orders."
Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min witnessed such travesty since he graduated in 2005 with a law degree from Burma’s Dagon University and began his practice.
"Once the trial starts, the judge, the prosecuting lawyers, the prosecuting officers, and the prosecution’s witnesses follow the (junta’s) instructions," the lawyer noted in a statement released soon after he arrived in Mae Sot.
Abuse is rampant during the trial, too, he added. "Questions asked in court by the defence lawyers are deemed inadmissible by the judge, and so are not officially recorded in the court transcript."
Secret of Thai success in opium war
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7899748.stm
Thailand army have helped wipe out the drug trade
By Alastair Leithead
BBC News, northern Thailand
High up in the beautiful mountains where Thailand, Burma and Laos meet, the landscape has been transformed in the years since the "Golden Triangle" produced practically all the world's opium.
Afghanistan gradually took over the dubious mantle in the late 1990s and is now responsible for 90% of the world's heroin.
It is a figure which has gone up, rather than down since Britain and the rest of the international community took responsibility for reducing the illicit harvest.
Over the same timescale, the Golden Triangle has seen its opium crop plummet to just a fraction of world supply.
Opium growing plots in the jungle are easy to spot from the air
One of the men who shares responsibility for the success story is now urging Afghanistan's Western backers to listen to him.
"Our thinking is opium, the people involved in opium, that 99% of it is driven by poverty and lack of opportunity - this is the cause," says MR Disnadda Diskul, secretary-general of the Mah Fah Luang Foundation.
The "MR" preceding his name indicates he is a descendant of the revered Thai royal family and has devoted the last two decades to helping a royal project bring an end to Thailand's deadly harvest.
In one area at least, that has been done through a combination of textiles, paper, coffee beans and macadamia nuts as money-making alternatives.
Heavy-handed military
Just below the ridge that separates Thailand and Burma, the mountain slopes steeply down into the valley and clinging to its sides are row after row of coffee bushes.
You can hear the women giggling and gossiping as they pluck the red-ripe coffee beans from their stalks and drop them into small wicker baskets hanging round their necks, but the vegetation is so lush that you can't see them.
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Life in a mountain village in the Golden Triangle
Surveying the scene from the path is Wattana Chuenwirasup, who now grows coffee where he once grew opium and trafficked it to dealers.
Sweeping his hand across the landscape he shows me where his poppies once flourished, circling 360 degrees from the edge of the hill tribe village.
"There were no choices then but opium and rice," he said. "It was dangerous when the government started to crack down on growing opium and there was a good opportunity."
His is the story of Thailand's success - a combination of sometimes heavy-handed military force and years of persuading people to grow something other than opium.
The Thai authorities say only 280 hectares of poppies were grown last year, and most of them were eradicated.
They may be remote, but fields in jungle clearings are relatively easy to spot from satellite images and aerial photographs, and heavily armed troops simply follow the maps and destroy the crops.
There is little resistance from local people. There is never any proof of who is growing the opium poppies, so although the fields are beaten down with sticks and irrigation pipes, there are no arrests.
Key to success
It is a lot more dangerous being part of an Afghan eradication force - they are regularly attacked and destroy just a fraction of the overall crop each year.
The eradication team beats down fields with sticks and irrigation pipes
Disnadda Diskul from the Mah Fah Luang Foundation is advising the Afghan government on the way forward, but says there is too much emphasis on getting rid of the poppies and that more should be done to give people other options.
"I look at the British approach and they do try hard, but I don't think they are doing it the right way because they spend so much money. The Americans also spend billions and billions of dollars and what do they get out of it? Nothing.
"At the moment they are pouring the money into Afghanistan but they are giving fish to the poor, but not giving them a fishing rod and teaching them how to fish, or to look after the ocean," he says.
"That's the difference between the Thai way and what they are doing in Afghanistan. The donor countries are using all their money for infrastructure - not into the mouths and stomachs of the people."
He points out establishing what people can produce and then identifying a market and joining them up is the key to the project's success.
Strong determination
The British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who has been in Afghanistan this week, insists they are on the right track with more Afghan provinces becoming opium free and the overall harvest being reduced a little last year.
"I don't know which programme the Thai representative is talking about because we don't do grand infrastructure projects," he said.
"We build alternative livelihoods for farmers from the bottom up, through projects such as the wheat distribution programme in Helmand.
"We are not interested in great projects - we are interested in steps forward for ordinary people.
"I think when you see the numbers coming out this year about poppy cultivation you will see them going down because security is getting better and because alternatives for farmers in the legal economy are getting better too."
It has taken many years for the villagers in northern Thailand to be weaned off opium, both through the new opportunities given to them and the sometimes very heavy hand of a country with a strong military, and a determination to tackle the problem.
That is still a long way off in Afghanistan, especially with war still raging in the south.
Burma's Clenched Fist
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/19/AR2009021902933.html
Is it time for the United States to reach out to the junta?
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Friday, February 20, 2009; Page A22
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S inaugural address made the world's tyrants a proposition. "We will extend a hand," Mr. Obama said, "if you are willing to unclench your fist." It now appears that Burma could be one of the first test cases for this approach. For decades, a small group of military officers has ruled the multiethnic Southeast Asian nation, crushing all political opposition and exploiting vast natural resources for personal enrichment. Aung San Suu Kyi, the winner of a free election in 1990 -- and still the embodiment of the Burmese people's democratic dreams -- languishes under government-imposed house arrest. There are more than 2,000 political prisoners. In response, the United States has maintained economic sanctions against Burma since the late 1990s; Congress toughened them last year, with the strong support of then-Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.).
Yet Mr. Obama's secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, has taken the occasion of a visit to Indonesia to announce a review of U.S. policy toward Burma. She pointedly did not rule out easing sanctions or other forms of diplomatic engagement. "Clearly, the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn't influenced the Burmese junta," she said, quickly adding that the policy of Burma's Asian neighbors -- "reaching out and trying to engage them" -- has not shown results either. This is consistent with the recent recommendation of an influential nongovernmental organization: Citing improved Burmese government cooperation with international relief organizations in the wake of last year's devastating cyclone, the International Crisis Group has called on the United States and other nations to step up development aid and resume imports from Burma.
President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush offered consistent condemnation of Burma's junta. In the absence of global cooperation with U.S. sanctions, however, that admirably tough talk was bound to produce limited results. And the Bush administration was not willing to risk America's broader relationship with China, the junta's chief patron, by pressuring Beijing on Burma. So it makes sense, in principle, for the Obama administration to seek a policy with more practical benefits for the Burmese people.
We hope that the coming policy review is truly realistic. As Ms. Clinton noted, so far, no one has figured out a way to democratize Burma from the outside. The junta is planning a phony election for next year, based on a new constitution "ratified" by a dubious plebiscite during the cyclone crisis. And the Burmese opposition itself still supports sanctions -- believing that the ruling clique will profit from increased trade and aid while also gaining political legitimacy at the expense of Aung San Suu Kyi. The United States and other countries have been supplying food and fuel to North Korea for over a decade, with no appreciable change in that regime's horrific treatment of its people. Mr. Obama should conduct a policy review, by all means. But he must stick to the priorities implied in his inaugural address: If the United States is to extend a hand to Burma, that country's tyrants must first relax their grip on power.
Clinton Has Teeth, And Is Ready To Use Them
http://fijigirl.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/clinton-has-teeth-and-is-ready-to-use-them/
Posted on February 19, 2009 by fijigirl
Shift Possible on Burma
Policy Sanctions Have Failed, Clinton Says, Hinting at Other Tacks
By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, February 19, 2009; Page A11
JAKARTA, Indonesia, Feb. 18 — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that economic sanctions imposed by the United States and other Western governments have failed to pressure the repressive Burmese government, signaling a potentially major shift in U.S. policy.
Clinton, at a news conference here, did not deny that easing sanctions was one of the ideas under consideration by the Obama administration as part of a major review, saying that “we are looking at possible ideas that can be presented.” She said she had discussed the issue with Indonesian officials.
“Clearly, the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn’t influenced the Burmese junta,” she said, adding that the route taken by Burma’s neighbors of “reaching out and trying to engage them has not influenced them, either.”
Burma, also known as Myanmar, is regarded as one of the world’s most oppressive nations, ruled by generals who have enriched themselves while much of the country remains desperately poor. The National League for Democracy, the party of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide electoral victory in 1990, but the military leadership refused to accept it.She has been held in confinement repeatedly since then, as have hundreds of her supporters. Any move by the Obama administration to scale back sanctions could face opposition in Congress, where lawmakers have imposed a series of increasingly tougher restrictions on the Southeast Asian nation.
The Bush administration also invested significant diplomatic capital into moving Burma for the first time onto the agenda of the United Nations Security Council, though a proposed resolution on the junta’s behavior has been vetoed by Russia and China. In 2007, Vice President Biden was the key mover in the Senate passage of the Block Burmese JADE (Junta’s Anti-Democratic Efforts) Act, which renewed restrictions on the import of Burmese gemstones and tightened sanctions on mining projects. The act also imposed new financial sanctions and travel restrictions on the junta’s leaders and their associates, and created a post for a high-level envoy and policy coordinator for Burma.
But some humanitarian organizations have begun to question the sanction policies. In an influential report issued last October, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group argued that humanitarian aid should begin to flow into the country and that bans on Burmese garments, agriculture and fishery products and restrictions on tourism should be lifted.
“It is a mistake in the Myanmar context to use aid as a bargaining chip, to be given only in return for political change,” the report said. “Twenty years of aid restrictions — which see Myanmar receiving twenty times less assistance per capita than other least-developed countries — have weakened, not strengthened, the forces for change.”
While Clinton has been careful not to tip her hand on the direction of the policy review, she has used strikingly mild language about the Burmese government, describing “the unfortunate path” taken by Burma, leaving it “impervious to influence from anyone.” Jeremy Woodrum, co-founder of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, said he hopes the Obama administration does not shift course. It “should not lift pressure, which would have the effect of selling out Aung San Suu Kyi, who has called for pressure on Burma and whom Secretary Clinton and President Obama just voted to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal,” he said.
“The Obama administration should pursue a multilateral global arms embargo to help stop crimes against humanity committed by Than Shwe’s regime.” Than Shwe is the leader of the Burmese junta. During her stop in Indonesia, Clinton also visited the Jakarta-based headquarters of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional bloc of 10 nations that includes Burma but is often criticized as ineffectual.
As scores of ASEAN employees lined the balconies to applaud her, Clinton announced that the Obama administration would consider signing the group’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, a nonaggression pact signed by 15 nations outside the region. The Bush administration had declined to sign it, in part because of concerns it might hamper policy toward Burma. Clinton also said she would attend a regional security meeting in July, a diplomatic session that former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice skipped twice during her four-year tenure.
“It really shows the seriousness of the United States to end its diplomatic absenteeism in the region,” a beaming ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said. Upon her arrival in Jakarta, Clinton was serenaded at the airport by children from the former elementary school of President Obama, who spent four years of his childhood here. At a joint news conference with Clinton, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda noted that Obama “has a very strong constituency in Indonesia — of course without the right to vote.”
- Well, bloggers, hopefully this will put the sh*ts up Vore and his Master Chodo. For years they’ve been looking at Burma and thinking “Wow! We can get away with that too!”. Not any more, bozos. The weapons of democracy are alive and well and pointing in your direction.
God bless Fiji
Filed under: Corrupt regime, Free Fiji elections, coup-de-tat | Tagged: Fiji Constitution, Fiji democracy, Fiji elections, international pressure, weapons of democracy
« Time To Step Up, PM LQ Leave a Reply
UN General Assembly President Calls for Dialogue in Burma
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=15156
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By LALIT K JHA / WASHINGTON Friday, February 20, 2009
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The United Nations General Assembly president, Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, urged Burma’s military junta and pro-democracy opposition leaders on Thursday to immediately start substantive dialogue without any preconditions.
“The president also joins [UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon] in calling on both the [Burmese] government and the opposition to resume substantive dialogue without preconditions and without further delay,” said a statement issued by Brockmann’s office.
The statement was released after a meeting between General Assembly Vice President Raymond Wolf and the UN special envoy on Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, at the UN headquarters in New York. It also came on the eve of crucial UN Security Council consultations on Burma.
It is customary for the UN special envoy, whose mandate flows from the General Assembly, to brief its president on his activities from time to time, particularly after completing a trip to Burma. Gambari recently made a four-day visit to the country that ended on February 3.
It was unclear why Gambari did not meet directly with the General Assembly president on this occasion. The UN General Assembly has as many as 21 vice presidents, one of whom happens to be the Burmese ambassador to the UN. The office of the General Assembly president said the meeting took place on his behalf.
Brockmann’s statement also reaffirmed the General Assembly’s continued engagement with Burma and its efforts to promote national reconciliation, democracy and respect for human rights in the country, as mandated by its resolutions.
Reiterating his support for the good offices role of the UN secretary-general and his special envoy, Brockmann also noted the important role played by neighboring countries, including members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as by countries belonging to the secretary general’s Group of Friends of Myanmar.
In his statement, the president encouraged these countries to remain engaged in support of the secretary-general’s good offices efforts.
UNSC to Consult on Burma
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=15146
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By LALIT K JHA / WASHINGTON Thursday, February 19, 2009
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The United Nations Security Council will hold a consultation session on Burma on Friday—the first since Barack Obama became US president—to take stock of the current situation in this country.
The powerful 15-member UN body—which has been increasingly critical of the Burmese military junta but has been unable to reach a consensus on a solution—will hear a firsthand account from UN Special Envoy to Burma Ibrahim Gambari, who visited the country recently and who met with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and leaders of the military junta.
UN members meet during a Security Council meeting at the 63rd United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2008. (Photo: Reuters)
He also made trips to Tokyo and Beijing to discuss the situation in Burma and to brief policymakers. He then flew to New Delhi to brief the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, who was there attending an international conference.
UN officials said the Security Council meeting would give an indication of the Obama administration’s Burma policy through its new UN ambassador, Susan Rice.
Meanwhile, speaking at a news conference in Jakarta on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Obama administration officials are looking at possible ideas as part of a major review of US policy toward Burma.
"Clearly, the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn't influenced the Burmese junta," Clinton said after a meeting with Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda. "Reaching out and trying to engage them hasn't worked either," she added.
While Clinton didn't reveal the direction of the policy review, she described the "unfortunate path" taken by the Burmese military government, leaving it "impervious to influence from anyone."
However, any move by the Obama administration to scale back sanctions on Burma could face strong opposition in Congress and Senate, The Washington Post reported.
US Vice President Joe Biden is often outspoken in his criticism of the Burmese regime. Biden spearheaded the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE (Junta’s Anti-Democratic Efforts) Act 2008, which was signed into law by former President George W Bush on July 29.
Recently, Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), has called for the UN secretary-general to visit Burma again, and urged Ban to act as mediator to start a dialogue between Suu Kyi and junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe.
Envoy says Myanmar rights grim
http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE51I4TH20090219
Thu Feb 19, 2009 4:55pm GMT
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) - A U.N. envoy said on Thursday human rights in military-ruled Myanmar had not improved since his last visit seven months ago, but he hoped the regime would listen to his recommendations this time.
Human rights rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana met a handful of political prisoners in Yangon's Insein Prison, and senior government officials in the junta's remote capital Nay Pyi Taw during his five-day mission.
But the Argentine lawyer failed to meet junta leader Senior General Than Shwe or opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose latest detention began in May 2003.
Nobel laureate Suu Kyi is among 2,162 people believed to be in detention in Myanmar for their political or religious beliefs.
"The human rights situation in Myanmar is still challenging. It's difficult to affirm that the human rights situation has improved," he told reporters before leaving Yangon.
However, he said some "positive signs" emerged from his meetings in Nay Pyi Taw, where he called for the progressive release of prisoners of conscience.
"I discussed this issue with the Minister of Home Affairs, and he said he's going to consider this recommendation," he said.
Quintana is the second top U.N. envoy to visit the former Burma this month, but observers said neither appear to have much to show for their efforts. Continued...
Earlier this month, U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari met Suu Kyi, but failed to make headway on bringing the military and Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) closer to talks on political reform.
"Frankly, I don't see any tangible results from Quintana's mission based on what is known of his activities," said a former Myanmar politician who declined to be named.
"So far as I know, he just went on a guided tour and met with people the regime had arranged," he said. Quintana was allowed to visit Karen State, home to one of the world's oldest insurgencies and where rights groups have accused Myanmar's military of widespread abuses.
But the envoy was denied access to Kachin and Rakhine states. Rakhine is home to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group which made headlines after reports of them were mistreated by the Thai military after fleeing over the border to escape poverty and hardship.
Ojea, whose own parents were political prisoners under a military regime in Argentina, met two NLD MPs during his visit to Yangon's notorious Insein Prison, diplomats said.
Tin Min Htut and Nyi Bu were sentenced to 15 years in prison in a closed trial the day before Quintana arrived in Myanmar.
The two men were arrested last August after writing an open letter to the United Nations criticising Myanmar's planned 2010 general election under a new constitution critics say will entrench the military's grip on power.
(Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Flag this messageFw: [burmainfo] 今週のビルマのニュース（0907号） NLDが改めて対話再開を要請、ほか
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ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2009/2/20
People's Forum on Burma
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ます。
（重複の際は何卒ご容赦ください。）
ＰＦＢ事務局
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ビルマ情報ネットワークの「今週のビルマのニュース」をお送りします。
「今週のビルマのニュース」バックナンバー
http://www.burmainfo.org/weekly.html
きょうのビルマのニュース（平日毎日更新）もご利用ください。
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/burmainfo/
ビルマ情報ネットワーク （www.burmainfo.org）
秋元由紀
========================================
今週のビルマのニュース Eメール版
2009年2月20日号【0907号】
========================================
【今週の主なニュース】
NLDが改めて対話再開を要請
・国民民主連盟（NLD）は17日に特別声明を発表し、軍政と
民主化勢力に政治対話をただちに再開するよう促した国連
事務総長の呼びかけ（5日付）に賛成すると改めて表明した。
またNLD書記長のアウンサンスーチー氏が軍政側の連絡担当
相との会合を拒んだという軍政側の主張について「事実と異なる」
とし否定した（17日付NLD特別声明2/12/09）。
・軍政は13日、国民民主連盟（NLD）のティンウー副議長（82）
の自宅軟禁措置を1年間延長した。氏はNLD書記長の
スーチー氏と同様、2003年5月末に逮捕されて以来
拘束されている（13日付APほか）。
・ 国連のキンタナ人権特別報告者が14～19日に7か月ぶり
にビルマを訪問した。カレン州パアンなどの刑務所で政治囚
数人と面会し、首都ネピドーで軍政高官と会った。アウンサン
スーチー氏や軍政トップ・タンシュエ将軍とは会えず、タイなど
への漂着が続いているロヒンギャ民族が住むアラカン（ラカイン）
州にも入れなかった。キンタナ氏は「人権状況の改善は見られない。
軍政が国連の勧告を聞き入れること望む」と述べた
（19日付ロイターほか）。
・ラングーン管区裁判所が先週、収容されている人気コメディアン
のザガナー氏の刑期を24年間減らした。ザガナー氏は昨年6月、
サイクロン被災者救援活動を行い逮捕され、11月には45年、
さらに12月には14年の禁固刑判決を宣告されていた
（17日付DVBほか）。
またタイに拠点を置く民主化団体と接触したとして逮捕され
26年の禁固刑判決を宣告された活動家2人の刑も16年ずつ
減刑された（18日付ミジマ）。
このうち1人ケイティアウン氏は今年1月に刑務所内で流産している。
【その他】
クリントン米国務長官が来日
・クリントン米国務長官が16日から来日。17日に東京大学で
開かれたタウンミーティングでビルマ政策について学生から
の質問に答え、（経済制裁を中心とした）ブッシュ前政権の
政策の見直しを進めていることを明らかにし、「ビルマ市民
をもっと効果的に助けるための策を模索している」と述べた
（18日付朝日新聞ほか）。
また17日夜に開かれた麻生首相主催の夕食会でも首相と
ビルマ問題について意見交換したとのこと
（17日付外務省）。
【ビルマへの政府開発援助（ODA）約束状況など】
新たな発表はなし
【イベントなど】
・在日ビルマ人共同行動実行委員会アクション－
国連事務総長に対し、一刻も早くビルマを訪問し、
スーチーさんを含むすべての政治囚の釈放と対話の
促進を軍政に働きかけるよう要請するアピール行動
（国連大学前、19～20日15～16時）
・日本ビルマ救援センター 月例ビルマ問題学習会
宇田有三「武装抵抗闘争60周年を迎えたカレン
民族同盟（KNU）の今」
（大阪ボランティアセンター、20日19時～）
・ビルマ市民フォーラム例会
外国人労働者は今…在日ビルマ人・外国人労働者の
おかれている状況について
（池袋・ECOとしま8階、2月21日18時～）
・新 拓生 写真展『黙殺の視線－Shan state of Burma』
（大阪ニコンサロン、3月5日～11日）
・ドキュメンタリー「ビルマ、パゴダの影で」水戸上映会
アムネスティ・インターナショナル日本・水戸グループ主催
（水戸市あむねすみと 2F、3月8日13時半開場、14時開演）
・第3代国連事務総長 ウ・タント生誕100周年記念祝典
BDA・AaharaSazaungほか主催
（みらい座いけぶくろ（豊島公会堂）、3月8日17時半～）
★「オルタ」2009年1・2月号
（特集「恐慌前夜─世界はいかに再編されていくのか？」）に
秋元由紀「ビルマ～天然ガス開発と日本の関与」が掲載。
☆春秋社より新刊のお知らせ～
アラン・クレメンツ著「ダルマ・ライフ－日々の生活に"自由"を見つける方法」。
著者はビルマで得度して僧になった初めての米国人。
国際的な注目を集めるビルマの状況に対して、
新たな角度から光をあてる一冊。
四六判／372頁／定価（本体2500円＋税）
★ジェーン・バーキン最新アルバム『冬の子供たち』が
発売中。アウンサンスーチー氏に捧げる楽曲「アウンサンスーチー」を収録。
【もっと詳しい情報は】
きょうのビルマのニュース（平日毎日更新）
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/burmainfo/
ビルマ情報ネットワーク
http://www.burmainfo.org/
【お問い合わせ】
ビルマ情報ネットワーク 秋元由紀
====================================
今週のビルマのニュース Eメール版
2009年2月20日号【0907号】
作成： ビルマ情報ネットワーク
協力： ビルマ市民フォーラム
====================================
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配布元: BurmaInfo（ビルマ情報ネットワーク）
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連絡先: listmaster@burmainfo.org
バックナンバー: http://groups.yahoo.co.jp/group/burmainfo/
※BurmaInfoでは、ビルマ（ミャンマー）に関する最新ニュースやイベント情報、
参考資料を週に数本配信しています。
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What Clinton's comments on Burma might mean for Canada
http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/worldnextdoor/archive/2009/02/19/what-clinton-s-comments-on-burma-might-mean-for-canada.aspx
By kate_heartfield 02-19-2009 COMMENTS(0) The World Next Door
Filed under: Burma, U.S., sanctions, Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton's comments on Burma seem to signal an openness to a change of policy — away from sanctions and toward engagement. This from the Washington Post story:
"Clearly, the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn't influenced the Burmese junta," she said, adding that the route taken by Burma's neighbors of "reaching out and trying to engage them has not influenced them, either."
As The Burma Campaign points out, it's not quite accurate to say that sanctions haven't worked — for one thing, the sanctions have not been anything close to universal. Still, though, it's hard to deny that neither China's engagement policy nor George W. Bush's isolation policy has forced the regime to change.
It's a tricky question — sanctions in general are tricky — and I don't pretend to have the answer, although I am highly skeptical, as I explained in this post a while back, that any increase in trade and investment would trickle down to the suffering people of Burma.
The thing that tips the balance for me is that the democractically elected government in exile (made up of parties such as Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy that won the last election, although the ruling miiltary junta ignored the result) have asked for sanctions. To my mind, that's the only body that has any moral authority to speak for the people of Burma.
Anyway, if the Obama administration does attempt a rapprochement with the military kleptocracy, it will be interesting to see whether the Canadian government follows suit. Harper's cabinet has been pretty well in line with the Bush attitude of condemnation and sanction toward Burma, so far anyway. (Indeed, I've been pleased to see our country, which so seldom takes a real position on any international issue any more, take firm positions on Burma and Iran. But who knows what the Conservatives will do from hour to hour?) If the Liberals get in, well, Liberals over the last couple of decades have a tendency to favour engagement policies, so we'll see.
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Ending Burma’s Disconnect
http://hiddenunities.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/ending-burmas-disconnect/
Madame Secretary acknowledges reality:
“Clearly, the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn’t influenced the Burmese junta,” she said, adding that the route taken by Burma’s neighbors of “reaching out and trying to engage them has not influenced them, either.”
The best possible policy the US could pursue at this point would be to connect Burma to American products, ideas and influence, rather than ceding them completely over to India, China and Thailand. While the generals skillfully play off their neighbors over gas and other resource exploitation contracts, America is shut out in the cold with little to show for it.
Pointing our fingers and chanting “Bad, Bad” is not going to dissuade the junta’s behavior nor convince its neighbors to change course.
A more engaged America can find ways to finesse the worst aspects of Burma’s misrule (the rampant drug trade, the hazardous health pandemic incubation policies, increased instability from conflicts within and around its borders) while profitably (in an advancement of national interest sense) exploiting suspicions among its neighbors about each other’s intentions to the hilt.
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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Hitting Back Against The Junta
Does US Plan Greater Engagement with Burmese Regime?
Asia’s Forgotten Crisis: A New Approach to Burma
Shift Possible on Burma Policy
February 19, 2009 - Posted by EB | Uncategorized | Burma, China, Foreign Policy | No Comments
America is back in East Asia
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/america-is-back-in-east-asia-20090219-8col.html?page=-1
February 20, 2009
THE choice of East Asia as the first destination for the new United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, promises a fruitful new era in American foreign policy, after the erratic treatment of the region during the George Bush years.
Most notable is Mrs Clinton's announcement in Jakarta that the US would begin the process of acceding to the Treaty of Amity and Co-operation among the 10 member countries of the Association of South-East Asian Nations, which commits signatories to refrain from force in settling their disputes and from interference in each other's domestic affairs.
It will be remembered that under John Howard, Canberra long resisted joining that pact, giving rise to suspicions that Mr Howard's remarks about strikes against terrorism threats forming in the region were no mere hypothetical musings but a version of the Bush unilateralism.
In the end, Mr Howard signed the treaty in 2005 as the entry price to the new East Asia Summit meetings.
No clearer signal could be given that unilateralism has been dumped than President Barack Obama's willingness to join this pact. This does not mean, however, that Washington will take a hands-off approach to problems of human rights and tyranny in South-East Asia.
The ASEAN grouping itself is redefining its notion of non-interference by putting human rights obligations on its members. This opens the diplomatic channels for harder regional pressure on regimes like the military government of Burma. It is likely to be more effective than the unlikely possibility of regime change effected by US military force.
Indonesia is shaping up as a test-bed for Mr Obama's efforts to engage with Islamic countries. It is, after all, the one he knows best, from his childhood years in Jakarta. Mrs Clinton has made much of the balance of religion, democracy, and modernising forces in the country with the world's largest Muslim population - progress still not sufficiently appreciated here, let alone further afield in the West. The new American interest may be uncomfortable for some Indonesians: if it is well applied, these will be the militarists and the religious obscurantists among them.
Mrs Clinton's first stop, in Tokyo, gave proper reassurance to the key ally in the post-1945 security architecture of the Western Pacific, as Japan undergoes economic and probably political transition this year.
However, this seemed aimed not at bolstering Japan as the "unsinkable aircraft carrier" dominating East Asia, the concept so beloved of its own and American conservatives, but to draw Japan into the slowly emerging new regional structure of co-operation including China, the two Korean states, and Russia. This is something Australia can only welcome.
The boomlet doesn't rule
SUDDENLY, a whole lot of little children have started school. Hardly surprising at the start of the school year, you might think. But in fact, as the Herald has reported, the numbers seeking a place are at or near a record, and they are little children - younger on average than previously. A combination of factors has produced a big enrolment in kindergartens across the state, and the trend is likely to present problems for the State Government.
One cause pushing children into schools is the collapse of ABC Learning, and the resulting doubts over the future of about a quarter of its 961 centres across the country. Nearly 90 centres in NSW are only operating with government support until buyers can be found.
Many parents have decided not to risk further disruption to their children or themselves by seeking alternative care in a tight market, but to start them at school a year early. For others, the motive for early enrolment will have been to avoid the expense of child care - a necessary cost when the economy is booming, but too much like a luxury in the present downturn.
The conventional wisdom - bolstered by some studies of children's performance in later years - has recently been that it is better for children to start school a little older. The author Steve Biddulph has long argued that boys in particular should start later, because they develop fine motor skills - used for, among other things, writing, drawing, buttoning and tying - later than girls. That preference appears to have been swept away by economic necessity.
The third reason for the rise in numbers is the mini-boom in babies which has been noticed since about 2004, as parents have taken advantage of the former Howard government's incentives to have more children. Such booms have entirely predictable results: larger classes, and pressure on an education system that is already facing a teacher shortage as those who were born in the previous baby boom start to leave the profession in big numbers.
That trend alone would be enough to worry governments - particularly the NSW Government - but it is allied with another: the low status and low pay of the teaching profession. The NSW Government is already struggling to meet competing needs. Something will have to give. Parents will hope it is not the needs of the children of the baby boomlet.
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