ASIA: Thai Junta as Saviour of Democracy in Burma

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Oct 27 2006 (IPS) - As the leader of a government set up by a military junta, Thailand’s Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont has a rare honour. He is being looked upon as a pivotal player in the drive to restore democracy and human rights in another military-ruled country -neighbouring Burma.

This idea, gaining ground among Burmese political exiles and human rights groups, stems from a variety of reasons. The Thai government led by prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, which was turfed out of power in the Sep. 19 coup, had gained notoriety as a passionate defender of Rangoon’s oppressive junta. The past two years saw Thailand out of step with the consensus among its South-east Asian neighbours, that have shown displeasure to the Burmese regime.

Bangkok’s policies during the Thaksin administration were driven largely by economic interests, whatever the political costs. This eye to profit was personal, with his family-owned telecommunications conglomerate standing to gain the most, Thaksin’s critics said. But Bangkok was unconcerned by the treatment meted out to Burma’s pro-democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi.

Surayud, on the other hand, had gained wide support among Burmese political exiles, refugees and ethnic groups fighting Rangoon’s troops during his stint as Thailand’s army commander, beginning in 1998. Besides opposing a move to drive back the tens of thousands refugees who had fled Burma for safety along the Thai border, Surayud also openly criticised Burma’s involvement in pushing drugs into Thailand.

‘’We hope that the interim government of Thailand would adopt a more sympathetic stance towards democracy in Burma and be more in line with the call being made by ASEAN (Association of South-east Nations) for democratisation in Burma,” says Soe Aung, foreign affairs spokesman for the National Council for the Union of Burma (NCUB), an umbrella body of Burmese political and human rights groups in exile.

He echoed the sentiments of other Burmese groups when he added during an IPS interview that Thaksin’s policies had encouraged Rangoon to become more oppressive in the face of growing international condemnation. ‘’The previous Thai administration had a cosy relationship with Burma because of the former prime minister’s business interests. Things just got bad.”

The growing spotlight on Surayud to take on Burma’s generals in his new role as the Thai premier has also to do with the dramatic shift underway at the United Nations. On Sep. 30, Burma found itself included on the formal agenda of the U.N. Security Council, which paves the way for the U.N. to assert a new level of pressure on Rangoon to open the country for political reform and end its gross human rights violations.

To achieve that, say human rights groups, Thailand may hold the key. Support from Bangkok for direct Security Council involvement in Burma would find Rangoon’s regime more isolated and with no defenders in ASEAN, the 10-member regional bloc of which Burma and Thailand are members. Till recently, the bloc -that includes Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore the Philippines, Brunei and Indonesia – shielded the junta from international criticism.

‘’A change in Thai policy and a willingness to speak out on the dire situation in Burma is critical to success in improving the human rights situation in Burma and gaining an international consensus, including at the Security Council, for urgent action,” wrote Brad Adams, Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch in a commentary published Thursday in ‘The Nation,’ an English-language daily here.

What is more, such a shift away from the Thaksin agenda in Burma would help restore the place Thailand enjoyed previously as a country in the vanguard of political and democratic reform in the region, Boonthan Verawongse, Thailand director for the global rights lobby Amnesty International, told IPS.

‘’In the past four to five years, Thailand has lost the opportunity to play a leading political and problem-solving role in the region,” he said. ‘’There is an opportunity now for the new government to consider taking positive actions towards human rights, peace and political development in the region.”

According to officials, Thais, Burmese and the international community will not have to wait long to learn what the Surayud administration has in store. ‘’On Nov. 3, the government will present its policy – including its foreign policy – to the National Assembly,” a Thai foreign ministry official told IPS. ‘’This should indicate the new government’s policy toward Burma, since it will state what Thailand’s policies will be towards its neighbouring countries.”

And between now and then, Burma watchers will get an opportunity to gauge how Gen. Surayud will take to Burmese Prime Minister Soe Win when they meet for an ASEAN-China summit at the end of October in Nanking, China.

Burma, which has been ruled by successive military regimes since a 1962 coup, has assured the international community that political reform was on the cards, with the on going National Convention to draft a new constitution being offered as proof.

But a message from the international community that it will not be fooled was delivered to Burma’s ruling strongmen on Oct. 20. It came in the form of a scathing report by Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, U.N. human rights envoy to Burma, to the General Assembly. In an unprecedented move, Pinheiro declared that Security Council involvement on Burma was necessary because of the escalating scale of human rights violations.

The U.N. General Assembly should ‘’consider calling on the Security Council to respond to the situation of armed conflict in eastern Myanmar (or Burma) where civilians are being targeted and where humanitarian assistance to civilians is being deliberately obstructed,” Pinheiro, a Brazilian national, noted in his recommendations.