Kanbawza Win
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
July 4,2003:

Like it or not, the ethnic nationalities and the pro democracy forces
seeking refuge inside Thailand and in the border regions with Burma
will be facing a hard time ahead. One should not be mislead by Premier
Shinawara Thaksin rhetoric of calling for the release of Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi and should take it with a pinch of salt. As far as the Thai policy
towards the prevalence of democracy and human rights in Burma is
concerned it has vividly adopted a NATO Policy i.e. No Action Talk Only.

On the other hand it had launched a systematic policy of persecuting
the Burmese who came in seeking a save haven in the kingdom of Thailand
even though the traditional Thai policy is to grant refuge to those
fleeing from persecution. The involvement of the Thai security forces in
the grossly killing of 6 young Burmese workers in the Tak province of
Mae Sot and the latest arrest of 11 Burmese whose only sin is planning
to demonstrate peacefully in front of the Burmese Embassy reveals the
psyche and rational of the Thaksin’s administration. It seems that the
Burmese pro democracy forces and the ethnic nationality will still have
to pay with more blood and sweat.

Thaksin's crude depiction of Burmese refugees and migrant workers is a
reminiscence of Hitler's approach to Jews before World War II. We can’t
believe our eyes to read such an anachronistic remark from the head of
a modern democratic nation.
The editorial of the Bangkok Post (3rd July) wrote “The Burmese
generals must be grinning from ear to ear to know they are not alone in their
heartless world of despots” His idea is to abolish the system of
registering migrant workers. In Its place he wants to set up a formal,
government-to-government, labor import system whereby migrant workers must
possess passports, visas, official contracts and a definite term of stay.
This means that some two million Burmese workers in Thailand will face
expulsion once their registrations expire and will be forced to live a
more tenuous existence vulnerable to more exploitation.

Moreover, the Burmese junta does not want to take the migrant workers
back. That is because not only do most of the migrants not have legal
documents to prove they are Burmese citizens but a large number belong
to ethnic minorities that the junta wishes to exterminate in its ethnic
cleansing system. The Thai immigration offices have tried before to
formalize the system, and failed miserably. They had to wait more than six
months for Burma to verify the citizenship of just 60 workers before
they could be sent back. Two died in Thai detention centers while they were waiting. And
the Burmese authorities agreed to accept only 20 for return is just one
example. Targeting the UNHCR, the migrant workers, and the
pro-democracy activists as scapegoats for national security threat does not augurs well for a Prime Minister to have a human face.

But to be candid Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra appears unstoppable.
Having consolidated and fortified his political power he is quite
confident to beat the Thai Democratic Party which is in disarray. Moreover
he is now making his presence felt among the world’s leaders. Having met
the world leaders in Bangkok and a host of Asian and European capitals
over the past 18 months, his latest diplomacy took him to Washington,
where he met with President George W. Bush where Thai-US relations is
placed firmly in the broad counter-terrorism coalition that greatly
bolster the prime minister's domestic popularity. In other words, he has
successfully transformed the traditional patron-client character of
bilateral relations with the United States towards a more nuanced and
relatively equal strategic partnership. Hence Thaksin is no longer just an
average elected leader from an average democracy but must be construed as
a regional leader with global notoriety.

Reading between the lines, Thailand is considered by the US congress
as a major non-Nato-ally and by signing a Container Security Initiative
benefits Thai exporters can circumvent the US strict anti-terrorism
customs procedures while a full fledged bilateral free trade is promoted
under the Thai-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement. The Bush
administration can now count on Thailand's wide-ranging cooperation
including the exemption of US citizens, particularly US servicemen, from
extradition to the International Criminal Court for criminal prosecution.

Prime Minister Thaksin, skillfully exploited the situation to galvanize
voter support and thereby achieve his control over the domestic
political environment? Making wide-ranging deals with President Bush and a
number of other world leaders serve his goals and has demonstrated that
now Pha Ma, the traditional sworn enemy is under their feet. He can even
squeezed the Junta’s economy by his infamous but popular anti drug
policy, if the latter misbehave.

It seems for the moment that the pro democracy movement both inside and
out side will have to grind their teeth and comment that both the
current administration of Thailand and Burma only understands the language
of the brute. Thaksin administration could barely comprehend the
language of peaceful and non violent struggle not to mention the humanitarian
aspects. So also the Burmese Junta can understand only the language of
force and both did not care for morality or humanitarian gestures.

Bruxells, Belgique