ANALYSIS / THAI-BURMESE RELATIONS

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

                                         August 24, 1998 


                                


       ANALYSIS / THAI-BURMESE RELATIONS 

 Miles apart but still
 talking

 Unbelievably, the sacking of Ayutthaya
 more than 200 years ago is still held up as
 one reason for our poor relations with the
 neighbour with which we share our
 longest border.

 Anuraj Manibhandu, Nussara Sawatsawang and Bhanravee
 Tansubhapol

 Fifty years of diplomatic relations have failed to bring Thailand and
 Burma into close embrace, but contacts do continue despite the bitter
 clash of ideas and complementary economic interests do raise the
 prospects for closer association.

 Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the deputy foreign minister, is in Rangoon on
 a two-day visit to celebrate the beginning of ambassadorial exchanges
 on Aug 24, 1948. His tentative plans include laying the foundation
 stone today for a new outpatients building at a Rangoon hospital
 specialising in tuberculosis.

 M.R. Sukhumbhand's visit follows Burma's categorical rejection of
 Thailand's call for "flexible engagement", or more open discussion of a
 country's internal issues that could affect regional stability, among
 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

 The visit also comes just nine days after the deportation of three Thais
 and 15 other foreign activists arrested in Rangoon while distributing
 leaflets supporting the pro-democracy movement launched there 10
 years ago.

 But Burma is committed to the "enhanced interaction" Asean agreed
 to adopt after most member states opposed any deviation from strict
 adherence to the association's cardinal principle of non-interference.

 And two decisions made in recent weeks show Burma's regard for
 relations with Thailand.

 During the foreign activists' detention in Rangoon, the ruling military
 junta - in response to a request by M.R. Sukhumbhand made during a
 visit in April with Pothipong Lamsam, the deputy commerce minister -
 announced it would allow relatives to visit 38 Thais jailed in Kengtung
 since early last year on charges of illegal entry and logging.

 Last week, the junta said it would reopen a border gate with Thailand
 that is the main channel for consumer goods badly needed by Burma.
 The Myawaddy checkpoint, adjacent to Thailand's Mae Sot in Tak
 province, will reopen on Sept 9 after being closed in April.

 According to the Tak Chamber of Commerce, trade has plummeted -
 from about 450 million baht in Oct 1997 to 10 million baht last month
 - since Rangoon also closed a local trade office in Myawaddy in
 November and enforced stricter regulations in a bid to attract US
 dollars.

 The drastic drop in trade stemmed from the disruption of movements
 of construction materials including steel products. Commerce in
 textiles and pharmaceutical products continues, said Panithi Tungphati,
 the chamber president.

 It remains to be seen whether Burma will also reopen the Thai-built
 Thai-Burmese Friendship bridge between Mae Sot and Myawaddy,
 which enables large and heavy volumes of trade as well as tourism.

 Rangoon's recent decisions are against a backdrop of a long history of
 difficult relations and virtually no progress in problem solving or
 conflict prevention.

 Most importantly, the 2,401-kilometre-long border between the two
 countries remains largely unmarked, except for a 58-kilometre stretch
 in the Chiang Rai region that was demarcated in 1991.

 Hence, local conflicts continue, some stemming from business interests
 between Thais and Burmese, others due to political problems between
 Rangoon and rebellious ethnic minorities. Many have caused loss of
 life and property, to Thais as well as to ethnic minorities along the
 border.

 Charan Kullavanich, a former secretary-general of the National
 Security Council, said Thai merchants continue to buy timber from the
 minority peoples in defiance of Rangoon's order, issued in Dec 31,
 1993, that timber is to be purchased direct from the central
 government. He also cited Thailand's sheltering of displaced Karens
 and Burmese students as significant problems.

 M.R. Sukhumbhand's last visit to Burma followed several armed
 clashes along the border between Karens resisting Rangoon's rule and
 the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army which is believed to enjoy the
 junta's support.

 Burma agreed at the time to form a technical team to deal with Kok
 Chang Puek, a disputed area whose ownership is complicated by the
 rainy season shifts in the course of the Moei river, and to give priority
 attention to other contentious areas on Doi Lang, at Ban I-Tong and
 at Mae Khon Kaen.

 Thailand considers Kok Chang Puek and Mae Khon Kaen part of
 Mae Sot district, Doi Lang as part of Chiang Mai, and Ban I-Tong,
 the entry point into Thailand of the controversial Yadana pipeline for
 carrying gas from the Martaban Gulf, as part of Kanchanaburi.

 The failure to attend to these crucial sovereignty problems is in
 defiance of the existence of four mechanisms for dealing with them.

 These include the Thai-Burmese Joint Commission and the Thai
 Thai-Burmese Joint Boundary Committee, both set up in 1993 and
 chaired respectively by the foreign ministers and deputy foreign
 ministers. The other two, the Thai-Burmese Regional Border
 Committee chaired by regional military commanders to attend to
 security problems and the Thai-Burmese Township Border
 Committee chaired by provincial governors and military chiefs, were
 set up in 1990.

 The signing of a cultural agreement, proposed by Thailand to mark the
 50th anniversary and endorsed by the Joint Commission, has been
 stalled in the absence of approval from the ruling State Peace and
 Development Council in Rangoon.

 There also has been no progress on the Joint Commission's call for
 agreements on tourism cooperation or on the waiving of visas for
 diplomatic and official passport holders.

 Historian Charnvit Kasetsiri of Thammasat University traces the roots
 of strained Thai-Burmese relations to the media's exploitation of one
 historical chapter, differences in economic and political systems, and a
 lack of effort by both sides.

 "The reproduction time and time again, in television dramas and in light
 and sound shows, of the second loss to the Burmese of the royal
 capital of Ayutthaya has sustained bad feelings among Thais towards
 the Burmese, who can hardly like being repeatedly portrayed as the
 villains," he said.

 The economic and political differences, which were clearly defined
 from 1962-1988 after Burma adopted the socialist way under Ne
 Win's leadership and Thailand took a more liberal path, built up
 "mutual mistrust" which has been exacerbated by the problem of
 ethnic minorities, he said.

 Apart from occasional visits, Mr Charnvit said there had been no
 "genuine" or "consistent" effort by the two sides to improve relations.

 "The problems stem from a lack of study of and knowledge about
 each other."

 The historian particularly urged exchanges between scholars and
 ordinary people.

 A Burmese government leader has not visited Thailand officially for at
 least 10 years.

 Gen Than Shwe, the prime minister and chairman of the SPDC,
 visited Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei in
 1995 and 1997. He came to Bangkok in Dec 1995 as a guest of the
 5th Asean summit, while Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa visited
 Burma in Mar 1996, followed by his successor Chavalit
 Yongchaiyudh in May 1997.

 Mr Charnvit emphasised the need for Thailand to try harder to
 "cultivate" relations with Burma, citing the "hundreds of years" of
 relations and the "reality" of the Thai-Burmese border being the
 longest that Thailand shares with any one country.

 Political scientist Chaiyachoke Chulasiriwongse of Chulalongkorn
 University is in no doubt that the recent move by activists in Rangoon
 has adversely affected relations.

 He said official assertions that Thailand had no advance knowledge of
 the activity had not dispelled suspicions in Rangoon, which "must have
 thought that the Thai government was trying to please both sides".
 Rangoon also does not appreciate Thailand's liberal handling of the
 continuing demonstration led by exiled Burmese at its embassy in
 Bangkok.

 Rangoon rejected the Thai proposal for "flexible engagement" because
 it was angry with what it regarded as a "test" of its willingness to bring
 about political change, said Mr Chaiyachoke.

 But Surin Pitsuwan, the foreign minister, believes the release of foreign
 activists in Rangoon on Aug 15 "vindicated" the idea behind
 "enhanced interaction", a "mutation" of his "flexible engagement"
 proposal.

 Burma released the activists after a number of Asean states conveyed
 the message that an early solution would be best. Eleven of the
 activists were Asean citizens: three Thais, three Malaysians, three
 Indonesians and two Filipinos. (Asean also groups Brunei, Laos,
 Singapore and Vietnam). Six Americans and one Australian were also
 arrested.

 Mr Surin said that because diversity no longer is a source of strength,
 the road to better Thai-Burmese relations lies in the recognition and
 careful handling of differences.

 "We have to know each other's limitations and differences so that we
 don't misunderstand, or expect too much from each other's reactions,"
 he said.

 Besides different experiences and roads to development, each country
 has its own structure and "domestic constituency" to respond to, and
 the "mechanics" of this constituency has to be understood, said the
 minister.

 Mr Surin, in emphasising that "flexible engagement" allowed "room for
 self-expression", said Thailand had "no other choice but to be true to
 itself". Quoting an excerpt from Shakespeare's Hamlet, he said: "This
 above all to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the
 day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

 Mr Chaiyachoke sees a more serious problem in "advantage-taking"
 by Thais, through exploitation of Burma's natural resources, as well as
 through the leniency in dealing with border traders who face virtually
 no Thai regulations.

 Although not making an active effort, Rangoon for its part was
 "gaining advantage" and lightening its load through the massive outflow
 of illegal workers to Thailand, he said.

 "Neither flexible engagement nor any other national policy on Burma
 will solve these problems," said Mr Chaiyachoke. The solution, he
 said, lies in changing the "behaviour" of dishonest traders and
 politicians.

                                                       
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 Last Modified: Mon, Aug 24, 1998
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