Kanbawza Win

In the wake of a crushing Democratic defeat in the Massachusetts Senate race, the ethno democratic Burmese forces would like to covey a piece of advice to the Obama Administration to be more pragmatic and acknowledges the big challenge in dealing with the pariah regimes like Burma. The State Department’s point man on Burma, Campbell has already held two rounds of dialogue with the Burmese Junta and had already admitted, “We have to watch carefully” and the big question is what did the US hope to achieve in its venture of the new U S policy towards Burma? in the wake an American citizen been tortured in Burma’s notorious Insein jail, not to mention the cruelties imposed on ethnic nationalities nor the fairness and credibility of the upcoming election.

This odd confluence of events provides an opening for a very timely warning and is time to recollect of who are the real friends of America in this Southeast Asia. We heard your heart during your 2002 speech at a Chicago when you indicate that you are ready to take America in a fundamentally new direction. Upon your inauguration, one year ago, we still believe you when you said, “The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history.” Now it seems that your policy is in the doldrums. Why lie down with the Junta for a frail engagement like what Burma’s neighbors are doing? Instead, you will have to put them down – with true progressive action of the ethno democratic group. Constructive Engagement coined by the ASEAN is a catchphrase that means nothing, serving only as a fog for professional politicians huddling together inside the beltway, too timid and too immersed in campaign logic to stand for anything.

Your duty is to fight today and then fight the next day and if you’re constantly looking up at the scoreboard, worrying about the outcome, you’re going to trip over your own laces. As 2010  usher in, a host of substantive policy changes: better health care access for millions of Americans, a strategic path to peace in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and a resounding series of Democratic victories in the midterm elections. However, if you stand aside and fail to response every shot even in a far away country like North Korea and Burma, 2010 could give way to a fractured, crumbling Democratic Party.

Burma is a hot bed in the international arena and if Burma fails then your foreign policy will fail everywhere. What China did to the Goggles is just one classic example of what she will do to the world once become a lone super power and Burma which is by the backdoor of fiery dragon is just a test case.

As Beijing sees, the negative factors affecting such ties include (i) the ‘historical legacy’ concerning China’s border issues with neighbouring countries,  e.g. Sino-Indian border issue, the Diaoyu (Senkakus) issue with Japan and the South China Sea question.  (ii) the changes in the balance of power in the region as a result of China’s rise, for e.g. Japan’s leading economic status in East Asia is getting challenged. Also, India which has fought a border war in the 60s is looking from a political and security point of view. (iii) The US alliance system (comprising Japan, South Korea, Australia and partnerships with the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, India and Pakistan) need to be strengthened now that China has access to the Indian Ocean via Burma

The people of Burma want to continue to admire you, like Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a Peace Nobel Laureate but who commands the largest military in world history – one whose budget roughly equals those of all the rest of the world’s militaries combined, and whose spending has increased – and have shown its military might in four different countries within a year. Your vision of a world free from nuclear arms while Democracy and Human Rights are to be strengthened has captured the world’s attention and given hope for a better future. Even though analysts have pointed out that your talk of hope and change throughout the campaign was largely rhetorical and void of serious substance, we still believe that your administration has affirmatively changed the course of diplomacy and that the United States is now a superpower that listens.

Modern democratic Union of Burma, born out of the Panglong Accord (1947) of the British colonial ash wants a reasonable, good governance regime and not those who commit crime against humanity, exploit it natural resources to its benefit and a threatens the international community. So please see please view Burma in the right perspective as Jerusalem’s Catholic patriarch message is still ringing in our ears when he preach that  “Painful reality contradicts our dreams, despite all that our hope remains alive, because hope doesn’t mean surrendering to evil. It means resisting it.”