Japan's policy feeds Burma's cruel

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Subject: Japan's policy feeds Burma's cruel junta

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  "'Constructive engagement' as a policy can no longer be justified by
pointing to the small cracks of light now showing through the high walls
around SLORC's Burma -- if you can see cracks of light, you must still be
mainly in the dark."
     Peter Christie, Asahi Evening News 

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Asahi Evening News
OPINION 
Saturday, June 1, 1996 

POINT OF VIEW by Peter Christie 

Japan's Policy Feeds Burma's Cruel Junta

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto was no doubt relieved to see
Burmese Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw finally leave Tokyo
Wednesday. 

The foreign minister happened to be in Japan when his country's
awkward and brutish military government, the State Law and
Order Restoration Council, decided to detain some 260 members
of Burma's opposition National League for Democracy ahead of
this week's party conference. 
Ohn Gyaw, who Japan's Foreign Ministry says was here to attend
a meeting on the environment, likely found the whole episode a
little embarrassing. 

After all, SLORC has been asking Japan for a full resumption of
development assistance. And appealing for help to improve
national welfare is a little incongruous with the news that your
government -- already best known for its slaughter of possibly
thousands of pro - democracy demonstrators in 1988 --remains a
vicious bully to its own citizens. 

The Hashimoto government was likely embarrassed too. It has so
far denounced the latest round of detentions, but hasn't gone as
far as the United States in threatening economic sanctions or a
boycott of tourism. 

And it hasn't admitted that the latest crackdown is evidence that
its policy toward Burma of "constructive engagement" isn't
working. 

"Constructive engagement" is the phrase used by countries who
want to justify doing business with Burma. The rationale behind it
suggests that luring SLORC into the world economic community
will convince its leaders to dispense with their repression of
Burma's people in order to secure more money and development. 

Japan continues to act like a leading proponent of this thinking. 

Other nations have more at stake in Burma, but Japan has
become among the most keen to improve business ties with the
long - isolated Southeast Asian nation. After the release of pro -
democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi from six years of house arrest last July, Japan was quick to
resume limited development assistance to Burma. 

While Shigeo Matsutomi, director of the Foreign Ministry's
Southeast Asia division, says Japan has clearly tied assistance to
Burma to "real progress toward democracy," Japan has in the past
year given grants to organizations within the country and has
provided SLORC with "some debt relief." 


Meanwhile, Japanese companies have become the third largest
foreign investors in the country's fastest growing industry --
tourism.  Japanese money for hotels and tourism - related projects
totaled $82 million (78.6 billion) at the end of last year, according
to Burmese government figures. Only Singapore and Thailand
spend more. 

Japanese are now among the most frequent tourists to the
country by nationality, accounting for 7% of all visitors in the 1994
- 95 tourist season. 

All this eagerness has made Japan the fifth largest foreign
investor in Burma ($101.14 million, or 10.6 billion yen, as of April
1995). As far as "constructive engagement" is concerned, Japan
is among the most engaging. 

For her part, Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly said "constructive
engagement" is misguided. She says foreign investment and
tourism dollars are only paying to arm a military whose only
discernable enemies are inside Burma's borders. (According to a
U.N. report, SLORC spent 222 times more on its military than it
did on health and education combined in 1994.) 

"We think it's really too early for either tourists, investment or aid to
come pouring into Burma," she said in an interview before the
latest crackdown. "We would like to see that these things are
conditional on genuine progress toward democratization." 

But Japan and other countries justify their engagement policy by
saying progress is being made. In the past two years, for instance,
SLORC has opened much of the countryside to unimpeded travel
by tourists. It has deregulated some industry (hotels included). It
appears less inclined toward brutality and violence. 

Proponents of "engagement" say SLORC has begun to
demonstrate its interest in international respectability so it can get
on with the business of becoming another Asian economic
miracle. SLORC leader General Than Shwe's guest appearance
at last December's summit of the leaders of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was an example of that. 

Yet, while "engagement" may have encouraged some of these
shifts in Burma, Japan clearly overestimates the policy's power to
affect fundamental democratic change. 

While SLORC may want to come out of the shadows, it clearly
wants to do so at its own pace and with its power intact (following,
say, Indonesia's model). And it will continue to ignore Suu Kyi, her
party and any chance of real democracy -- if it can. 

Whether it can or not depends on countries like Japan. 

If Japan, through a misguided policy of "constructive
engagement," continues to feed SLORC's hunger for foreign
currency (much of which is used to maintain its military) its leaders
can continue to ignore the will of the Burmese people --a people
who overwhelmingly supported Suu Kyi's pro - democracy party in
the 1990 elections that were annulled by the government. 

If, on the other hand, Japan uses its diplomatic muscle and the
promise of loans and development assistance to Burma as
leverage, SLORC will be pressed into dialogue with Suu Kyi and
forced by the people of Burma toward a path of real democratic
progress. 

"Constructive engagement" as a policy can no longer be justified
by pointing to the small cracks of light now showing through the
high walls around SLORC's Burma -- if you can see cracks of
light, you must still be mainly in the dark. 

The author is an Asahi Evening News staff writer who recently
visited Burma. 

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