Sanction will work on Burma

by Htun Aung Gyaw

While I was reading his article "Sanctions Don’t Work", I realized that Nicholas D Kristof does not notice the difference between Burma and other countries . Every country has a unique condition and political environment. Cuba, Syria, and North Korea have totally different back ground.

Cuba leaders came to power by means of revolution. They took the political power with the support of their country men, there is no opposition political parties exist in Cuba.

North Korea has been rule by the communist with the help of China which has been notorious for its kidnaping and sending dead squad to South Korea and other countries including Burma. Also it has been rule by communist party and no opposition allow to exist.

But Burma is different, we have opposition political party which won the land slide victory in 1990 elections. We have world known leader, 1991 Nobel Peace Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi. The others do not have this condition.

Burmese military is not well united like Korea and Cuba because many new recruiters are mostly not volunteers but forced to join the army. People are still supporting the opposition political party NLD which frighten the regime to made a stupid action in May 30th this year which killed more than one hundred innocent followers of Aung San Suu Kyi. The regime did not allow NLD and its leader to organize the people proved that the existence of the opposition party is a big threat for them.

Imagine that if we lift the sanction and cooperate with the regime what will we get? Democracy or extended military rule ?

How do Nicolas knows sanctions have failed in Burma, only it is going to shape into full scale sanction. The previous one is only a partial sanction on new investment.

When he talk about the UN Children’s Fund, it remind me in Burma how UNICEF medicine were misused by the military for its troops in the front line not for the children. When US donated helicopters for drugs eradication, the military mounted machine guns on those helicopters to attack ethnic resistance groups because my late brother in law was a major in the Burmese air force, he told me about it. Nicolas need to do in depth research on Burma before throwing out his anti sanction idea.

Khin Nyunt , the self appointed Prime Minister is selling the story that sanction impact let to 30,000 and more layoffs in the garment industry. Most are women and now they are being forced into prostitution. It seems US government is making a big mistake, against humanity. I did not buy this story, but Nicolas gladly bought it. Why he bought the story? because he has little experience about Burma politics and lack of knowledge about the mentality of the Burmese regime.

Here is my explanation. In 1988-89 when I was the Chairman of ABSDF, 90 percent of the prostitutes in Thai-Burma border’s brothels were Burmese and ethnic minorities from Burma. At that time there is no sanctions imposed on Burma. Why a lot of prostitutes are from Burma? Because there is no safe place for them to live or work. Forced labor and forced porters were every where practiced by the regime. They said they are practicing the Burmese tradition which every body has a duty to build roads and bridges under the King as volunteers. They argued that it is a volunteer labor not a forced labor.

Some women definitely will go into prostitution after they lost their jobs but not all of them. A lot of women enter into the sex business not because of sanctions because there is no security for them to live. Many ethnic Mon, Karen, Shan, and Burman women have been working as prostitutes in Thailand for decades because their lives are in danger. More than over ten to twenty thousand prostitutes are now living in Thailand long before the sanctions.

One million illegal Burmese workers are working in Thailand long before the sanction. More than 80,000 refugees are now living in Thai Burma border. More than 60,000 internal displace persons are living and hiding inside Burma with fear. More than 100, 000 Burmese Muslim refugees are now living in Bangladesh border. Think about it seriously if we lift the sanction and let the regime to survive, what will happen , it will produce prolong military rule in Burma.

Nicholas states that "in the more typical cases of Iraq, Haiti, Cuba and North Korea, sanctions seemed only to empower dictators" but in Burma case it will work.

Let me refute anti-sanction position, Burma and Indonesia have similar background and political patterns. Both countries gained independence from Britain and Dutch, not long after independence Suharto toppled down the elected President Sukarno(current Indonesian President Magawatti’s father) and took over the political power by killing at least one million communist and its sympathizers which promote him as a western favorite dictator who stopped the communist influx in Southeast Asia.

Suharto got a lot of financial and military aid from the US, the west, and Japan. The rise of Suharto was welcomed by the West and by the United States because he had been able to quash the communist threat without outside assistance.

Suharto proceeded to create the Golkar party, which was authorized to select the candidate for president. Without fail for seven elections, the Golkar party chose Suharto as its nominee and enabled him to rule the country for 32 years until his resignation in May 1998.

The support from the Western powers and the surging economic growth in Asia enabled Suharto to stay in power until the Asian financial crisis hit Indonesia.

My point is Suharto refused t quit until he faced the financial crisis. Sanction is meant to create financial crisis in Burma which will spark the demonstrations and forced the regime to negotiate with the opposition which will lead to regime change. Without sanction without financial difficulties, Burma regime will enjoy the western funds and stay in power for ever. Fifty million people will be suffered, we have to think about 100,000 betterment or fifty million. If the regime have well equipped army and money, do we think they will hand over political power? Not even in my dreams.

The Burmese regime has always looked to Indonesia for a model of economic prosperity coupled with political authoritarianism. The military government recognized that economic prosperity was the key to their holding power, just as Suharto and his circle did.

As a kind person Niclas worried about the kids in Burma, I want him to think about not only the kids in towns and cities but also kids in the remote areas where ethnic minorities live and die every day where the UN aid never reach to the area where they belong

Nicolas might think lifting sanction and working together with the Burmese regime in constructive manner will improve the living condition of the very people and gradually lead to democracy. He is the person who like evolution while drinking a wine and writing a human suffering. For me, I cannot wait for the gradual evolution for another thirty years while our comrades are suffering in the notorious prisons.

Imagine, if your son or father or close friends are in prison for more than 12 years and some one said "We do not support sanction or arm struggle, we will work with them and gradually change them, it will take time but it is the better way to go". I have rage inside me because my comrades are in the prison for such a long time.

Many political prisoners age range from 80 to teens are living in hell. People who hate sanction in Burma are businessmen and the regime. Are you one of them?