The sanctions work !

[kenoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

 Subject: Re: Sanctions Don't Bring Burma Democracy
 Date: Monday, March 23, 1998 10:00 PM
 
The sanctions work when every country (at least the majority) takes part.
It is our duty to tell the world the truth what the regime in Burma like.
It may take 10 years, 20 years or even 100 years to educate the world, it
doen not matter. The important thing is we must start now and pass our
fighting spirit
against the oppresion and standing up for the justice on to our new
generations. We may not be able to see the real democracy is achieved in
Burma during our life time. But the new generation of Burmese people will
enjoy
it. If it is so easy to achieve the Democracy in Burma, those who are
struggling for this course, those who are in jail and those have died for
it were not be the great people of Burma !
 
It is painful to see people in Burma are suffering. The sanction did not,
does not, will not bring the suffering. BSPP and/or SLORC and/or SPDC did
it, does it and as long as they are in power they will bring no future for
the Burmese people. So it is so important to eradicate the system which
allows the dictatorship appears in Burma once and for all. Let's not to get
the illusuion that 10 years of struggle is too long, so better join in or
approve the most infamous regime ( in defacto ). We (our generations) will
never escape form the oppression. Sanction is a good start and we have to
stick
to it unitl SPDC talks with NLD (Daw Aung San Suu Kyi) sincerely. 
 
Let's remember that whoever determined will win.
> 
> 
>  
> ----------
> > From: OKKAR66127@xxxxxxx
> > To: Recipients of burmanet-l <burmanet-l@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Subject: Sanctions Don't Bring Burma Democracy
> > Date: Saturday, March 21, 1998 1:09 PM
 
> > Sanctions Don't Bring Burma Democracy
> > by Ma Thanegi
> > International Herald Tribune, Friday, 20 March 1998
> > 
RANGOON - It is time for those of us in Burma's democracy movement to
face up to a difficult truth: Ten years after the movement began, we have
made
almost no real progress toward democracy. More people are in jail,
countless others are suffering from the effects of sanctions, and the
military government seems stronger than ever.  The
National League for Democracy may have won the moral battle, but it is
losing the war.
All of us should be deeply concerned about this.
I joined the NLD in 1988, worked as an aide to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and
came to know and lover her well.  I was arrested in 1989, on the same
day she was put under house arrest.  I spent most of the next three years
in Rangoon's Insein prison, and was released in a 1992 amnesty with about
100 other political prisoners. We were all willing to go to jail, because
our cause was so important

Burma had been isolated for 26 years, we were desperately poor, and the
people were suffering.  But 10 years later, all we have produced is
idealistic platitudes. 

I know that sounds harsh, but we need to be hard on ourselves.  It is
not enough just to criticize the military regime.  We have an obligation to
seriously examine our strategies -- and if they aren't working, we need
to find others that will Let's start with sanctions and boycotts.  The
National League for
Democracy has focused on these to pressure the military regime to enter a
dialogue. 

Why didn't the strategy work?  It was based on the assumption that the
military regime depends on foreign investment to survive.  But the regime
did not topple when millions of us protested in the streets in 1988. 
It did not topple when the United States and Japan cut off aid.  It did
not topple when Washington imposed sanctions.  In fact, it now seems
stronger than ever.

The second claim about sanctions is that they hurt only the elite,
since ordinary people do not benefit from investment.

It is true that the elite is benefiting.  But so are ordinary people,
who have found jobs in garment factories, construction projects, and
hotels.

Those may not sound like very good jobs, but we are just at the
beginning of economic development, and even a low-paying job is better than
no
job at all.

Most economists would agree that urban elites usually benefit more than
rural farmers in the early stages of economic growth.  So it is
sensible to deny everybody jobs, simply because some people will get richer
than
others?  In fact, many of us fear that sanctions are making the people
more vulnerable  

Burma is a poor, agrarian country, and most of our people live without
even electricity or telephones.  This makes Burma easy to rule with
military, rather than political, methods.  But if we encourage large,
responsible
companies to come in, they can be a strong influence for modernizing
and opening the economy.  And if Burma develops economically, it will help
promote political development.
 
The old methods do not work anymore.  Governments in modern, developed
societies have to respond to the people, rather than the other way around.

There are no easy solutions for Burma, and there is no automatic path
to democracy - Cambodia is proof of that.  But sanctions are a path to
nowhere.

Politicians inside and outside the country need to set realistic goals
and come up with pragmatic strategies.  Politics, after all, is the art of
the
possible, and the future of millions of people is at stake.  Let's drop
the platitudes and find realistic ways to help the people of Burma, not
condemn them to poverty in a senseless pursuit of Utopia.

(The writer is a painter and writer living in Rangoon.  She contributed
this comment to the International Herald Tribune).


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