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MALAYSIA NEWS, 27 AUG





The SUN Megazine/ column: WYSIWYG (Saturday  24/8/96)

Malaysia's Moral Blackout
by Sheryll Stothard

A media release I received last week ended with a quote from Cenpeace
spokesperson, Fan Yew Teng: "Last week, we had an electricity blackout
and our Prime Minister said he was ashamed. This week, we have a moral
blackout and no one talks about it."

    He was referring to the five-day state visit of General Than
Shwe, head of Burma's - oh sorry, - Myanmar's State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC).

    As a Malaysian, I have to share in the shame and question the
inconsistency in our foreign policy as far as genocidal butchers are
concerned. As a taxpayer, I protest that some of my tax dollars have been
spent on hosting a representative from one of the most repressive,
immoral and backward "governments" in the world.

    I am not an activist. In fact, I frequently am irritated by the
holier-than-thou exhortations NGOs are sometimes given to. Yet, in this
situation, I am sure I echo the feelings of many non-NGO, non-activist
Malaysians as far as the SLORC is concerned.

    Why do I feel so strongly about this? Why can't I accept ASEAN's policy of
"constructive engagement" with the SLORC?

    For one thing, I cannot reconcile myself with Malaysia's split
identity problem when it comes to human rights abuses in foreign
countries. Flying in the face of established Western agendas, over the
last decade, Malaysia has been laudably vocal in condemning human rights
abuses in places like Bosnia, the Middle East, Chechnya and South Africa.

    However, that well-known Malaysian moral outrage tapers off into
a whimper as we get closer to home. We dismiss the genocidal atrocities
in East Timor even to the extent of saying that Malaysians who get killed
in the crossfire deserve it. Indonesia is a member of ASEAN and we cannot
criticise our partners - that seems to be the underlying reason.

    With Myanmar, we don't even have that excuse, however feeble. Why
invite Southeast Asia's version of Radovan Karadzic as a state guest to
our country? The economic reasons arenAt even compelling enough to
warrant mention. Surely, we're making enough money economically
plundering Vietnam, Cambodia and various  impoverished African states.
Why start acting like desperate vultures looking for a fast buck in
Myanmar?

    Take away the bleeding heart liberalist rhetoric of Western
proponents of democracy. Take away even the personality cult of Nobel
Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi. Take away Western threats of
economic sanctions. Take away all that, even John Boorman's silly movie
Beyond Rangoon. What do we have?

    The SLORC was formed in September 1988 and promptly declared
martial law. This was just an academic continuance of the brutal regime
of Ne Win and his military cronies who assumed power after a coup in
1962. Earlier in 1988, the army gunned down pro-democracy students and
started a nationwide offensive against the countryAs best and brightest -
young people who were the only hope Myanmar had for a long time.

    How can anyone shoot their children? Why bother to educate them
and then gun them down like defenseless animals in the streets? Even the
SLORC doesn't bother denying that this happened. How can Malaysia
officially accept this? Why rant and rave about Bosnia when we accept,
condone and even encourage the same in Myanmar? What does that say about
us?

    Malaysia takes pride in the fact that Islam is its official
religion. Malaysians are frequently referred and looked up to by the
international Muslim community as respected spokespersons for the faith.
Yet, we have invited a representative of a ogovernmento responsible for
the decimation and ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in the Arakan
area of Myanmar.

    Since the SLORC took over till 1992, over 260,000 Muslim
Myanmarese have fled the country. Backed by the SLORC, a border
development programme was introduced for the purpose of forcibly removing
the Muslim population from the country's north-western frontier. The
SLORC says that there are 690,000 Muslims in the Arakanese area. Muslim
groups and the Bangladeshi government calculate the population at 1.4
million. That's quite a lot of Muslims for the SLORC to kick out, rape,
maim and kill.

    I have been using the word "government" loosely in reference to
the SLORC. Well, technically and morally, I am wrong and so is anyone
else who thinks so.

    In May 1990, the National League for Democracy won a landslide
victory in Myanmar's general elections, winning 392 of the 485 seats
available, despite the harsh conditions imposed on the NLD and on Aung
San Suu Kyi by the military.

    When it was time to hand over power to the elected government,
the SLORC responded by throwing  NLD MPAs into jail. Many have been
tortured and killed since.

    So who have we invited to Malaysia and alligned ourselves to? The
leader of military generals who are completely indiscriminate in their
willingness to kill and enslave the people of Myanmar.

    To businessmen who have jumped on the bandwagon to Myanmar, some
cautionary advice is in order. Even if you are, as most businessmen are,
completely amoral, doing business with the SLORC is a huge investment
risk. You might initially make some money off the blood spilled by a
population enslaved by the SLORC. But enjoy the short ride while it
lasts. If the SLORC can decimate and kill its own people, it is unlikely
that they will honour any agreement made with foreigners the moment a
higher bidder - whether Asian or Western - turns up.

    Malaysians have a responsibility to ensure that our reputation
for tolerance and moral integrity in this region is not compromised. The
future of Myanmar is in the hands of ASEAN, not the West. We are in the
position to effect much needed change in that country. In light of the
SLORCAs history, "constructive engagement" is not the way to go. We are
not doing the people of Myanmar a favour by inviting their killers to our
country to talk business. Instead, we have justified the oppression. And
in the case of Malaysian companies doing business there, weAre just
twisting the knife in deeper.

    And for that, I am truly and deeply ashamed. Surely, we are
better than that. Or are we?

Sheryll Stothard
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
sheryll@xxxxxxxxxxxx

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