Samak: Suu Kyi 'tool of the West'

[Khun Don]

Suu Kyi 'tool of the West'

BANGKOK POST AND AFP

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej yesterday criticised Western nations for pinning their hopes of bringing democracy to Burma on the release of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Mr Samak met the United Nations' top envoy to Burma Ibrahim Gambari yesterday and told the diplomat that efforts to engage the military regime would be more productive if the Nobel peace prize winner was left off the agenda.

''Europe uses Aung San Suu Kyi as a tool, [but] you can have deeper discussions with Burma,'' he told reporters.

''The [international community] should talk about how to bring democracy to Burma and focus on the constitution and the elections,'' he added.

Mr Samak said he would relay that message when he attends the UN General Assembly next month and Thailand would be ready to help as chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

The UN envoy also met Foreign Minister Tej Bunnag yesterday.

Mr Gambari left Burma on Saturday after failing to secure a meeting with Mrs Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for most of the last 19 years.

Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party has branded the UN visit a ''waste of time''.

Mrs Suu Kyi led the NLD to a landslide election victory in 1990, but was never allowed to govern.

[billk]

Apologists for the Burmese dictatorship of all stripes love to run the line that there would be a fire sale of Burmese assets to Western interests if the NLD took power. I would take their claims more seriously if they showed any commitment to the Burmese people gaining a decent share of Burma's wealth under the dictatorship.

Apologists for dictatorships more generally seem to find in them the virtue of resisting Western neo-imperialism. Too bad it's not true.