MYANMAR MUST REFORM BEFORE JAPAN RE

[darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Asahi Shimbun

May 31, 2000, Wednesday

MYANMAR MUST REFORM BEFORE JAPAN RESUMES AID

Asahi Shimbun said in an editorial:

Ten years have passed since the last election was held in Myanmar (Burma).
Though the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won
a lop-sided victory in the May 1990 election, the military junta has clung to
power by breaking its promise of shifting to civilian rule.

The junta, whose 37 members out of the total of 39 are present or former
military officers, not only refuses to have a dialogue with those promoting
democracy but also stymies economic and social development. The track
record of the rulers during the past 10 years is dreadful. As long as the 
military
junta rules the country, there will not be any prospect for a positive future
in Myanmar.

There is doubt over the junta's ability to rule the country, particularly 
because
of differences within the junta itself and inconsistency in its economic 
policy.
Many Japanese companies that opened offices or plants in response to Myanmar's
incentives to attract foreign capital have been forced to shut down.

Ajinomoto Co., which built a plant with the approval of the Myanmar 
government's
Investment Commission, had to cease operation because Myanmar's health
ministry did not allow the import of raw materials.

Toyota Motor Corp., which opened a dealership in the country, withdrew its
staff because the number of cars that could be imported into the country
has been slashed. The government has offered no reasonable explanation
in either case.

Investment in Myanmar by Japanese companies has been reduced partly
because of the recession in Japan.

But the problems with Myanmar are not limited to the business arena.
Surprisingly, universities have been closed for years. Even the military
juntas in Indonesia and Thailand that suppressed student movements
rarely closed universities because it was thought that universities
nurtured people who would assume future leadership positions.
But the story is different in Myanmar.

The Myanmarese military closed down universities after suppressing
a movement by students who demanded democracy and protested
against the military dictatorship and economic confusion.

But except for a period of time in the mid-1990s, the doors to Yangon
  (Rangoon) University and other academic institutions have remained shut.

High-ranking, and therefore high-income, officers within the junta send
their sons and daughters to study abroad. This is not the way to nurture
bureaucrats, let alone academics. The tradition of producing competent
people, such as the late United Nations Secretary-General U Thant,
has crumbled away.

The junta lifted Suu Kyi's house arrest in July 1995. But the dialogue
between her and the junta, which many had pinned their hopes on, did
not come about and the military tightened its control over the
National League for Democracy. Suu Kyi is even prohibited from making
trips to provincial districts.

Tokyo is planning to hold a forum to discuss Myanmar's economic
structural reform and has been searching for ways to resume giving the
country official development assistance (ODA). But the most
we can hope for from providing aid once again is a prolonging of military
unta rule.

If assistance is given at all, it should be limited to that which will 
directly
benefit the people. The number of people who study or undergo training
in Japan should be increased on a strictly selective basis.

Assistance should also be given to those young Myanmarese who have
difficulty paying for their education back home. What is important is a
long-term plan.

Assistance should be given on the basis of practical steps toward a transition
to civilian government rule.

Japan must continue to point out the folly of dictatorial politics by the 
military
in Myanmar. (Asahi Shimbun, May 29)

[it's not clear if this article is 29 or 31 May -- DA]