( ဒီေန႔ ( ၁၆ . ၁၁ . ၂၀၁၁ ) ရက္ေန႔ထုတ္ ၀ါရွင္တန္ပို႕စ္သတင္းစာမွာ ေဖၚျပထားတဲ့ ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္သမၼတရံုး ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမွဴး ဦးေဇာ္ေဌးရဲ႕ ေဆာင္းပါး မူရင္းျဖစ္ပါတယ္ ။ ျမန္မာသမၼတရံုးက ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမွဴးတစ္ေယာက္ရဲ႕ေဆာင္းပါးကို ၀ါရွင္တန္ပို႕စ္လိုသတင္းစာမွာေဖၚျပထားတာဟာ ထူးျခားလွပါတယ္ ။ )
By Zaw Htay, Tuesday, November 15,10:16 PM
When President Obama sees his counterparts among the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations this week in Bali, he is expected
to advance a number of major initiatives. Washington has made clear the
Asia-Pacific region’s importance to the 21st century and its dedication
to an enduring U.S. presence there.
For its part, Myanmar has weathered numerous revolutions without
regime change, including the “first wave,” after the fall of the Berlin
Wall; the Saffron revolution in 2007; and multi-party elections
in November 2010. The political situation in Myanmar cannot be compared
with the uprisings in the Middle East because Myanmar itself overcame
uprisings like those changing the Arab world.
Myanmar’s path is
intricately tied to the needs of our country. Washington and the West
need to understand that our president is a strong political reformer and
that our proposal for Myanmar to assume the chairmanship of ASEAN in
2014 would accelerate the process. This is my president’s political road
map for the international community. The United States must recognize
that Myanmar’s politics will transform in steps. Every change must be
based on reality, stability and systematic process. Myanmar must focus
on overhauling the old system while building the society the
international community has long hoped for. This is the political drama
in Southeast Asia.
President Thein Sein is the hope of our entire
nation, including ethnic minorities, people in the grass roots and the
middle class. Aung San Suu Kyi said
in an interview with local journalists that she believes President
Thein Sein “is very genuine in his desire for the process of
democratization.” But he needs strong support from the international
community to usher in a new era. Washington and others must change their
dual-track policy toward Myanmar if they want it to become a democratic
country as measured by their values and norms.
In the short
term, Myanmar needs aid and trade, direct foreign investment and
business opportunities. Financial sanctions must be lifted and upgrades
made to public education and the health-care sector. Efforts must be
made to develop the overall economy. If Myanmar does not overcome these
battles, it cannot evolve in ways that would be a win for our people and
the outside world.
What the West must realize is that in today’s
geopolitical situation, particularly given the rise of China, it needs
Myanmar. Washington and others must help facilitate Myanmar’s connection
to the outside world at this critical juncture. My president’s
cancellation of the Beijing-backed Myitsone Dam signaled
to the world what he stands for. If the United States neglects this
opportunity, Washington will part ways with the new order in the
Indochina region.
When President Thein Sein came to power in
March, he declared an unprecedented reform agenda, including clean
government, good governance, poverty reduction, national reconciliation,
development and industrialization. His commitment to drive the reform
process has impressed people in and outside our country. When Sen. John
McCain visited Myanmar in June,our government made it clear that it
intends to walk away from its pursuit of nuclear power, even though
Myanmar has many research and development needs to which nuclear
technology could be applied. The new government decided after the
incident at Japan’s Fukushima site this spring not to pursue the nuclear
path.
President Thein Sein has made extraordinary progress over
the past eight months. Facing many challenges, he is trying to implement
democratic processes. The U.S. government must understand his political
situation — for every one step forward, there is a more difficult step
back. The West should encourage him, not simply apply pressure without
any give in its own positions. Don’t push him into a corner.
Many
observers believe Myanmar is approaching a new beginning. People are
starting to feel they can express openly what they want, that they can
ask questions of the government and make demands on lawmakers. These are
tangible results of the 2010 elections.
U.S. attempts to further
isolate Myanmar at this juncture would be a disaster. As this country
opens its doors to the outside world, Washington must cross the
threshold. Obama and Congress must strongly support President Thein Sein
and democratization in Myanmar. The White House must officially build
the diplomatic bridge to our country at the Bali summit by supporting
Myanmar’s bid to assume the ASEAN chair in 2014. A message from Obama
that this move would assist the advancement of peace, stability and
development in Myanmar would reinforce hopes across our country.
Some
have expressed doubts about Myanmar’s state capacity, the population’s
confidence in the leadership and the political implications of Myanmar
holding the chairmanship. Would this be a step toward international
sanctions being lifted?
First, taking on this role would give
Myanmar the status with which the nation should be viewed on the
international stage. The key point is pride for Myanmar’s people, not
for the president and his administration.
Second, Myanmar has been
closed to the outside world for decades. Many in the region and
elsewhere pressure Myanmar or treat it with doubts and questions. Our
country was historically a regional powerhouse and should regain its
rightful position.
Political development in Myanmar is home-grown.
Our country has taken steps other nations in the region have not yet
accomplished. We implemented a new constitution late last year and its
effects are taking hold.
China ascended to the world stage with
the Beijing Olympics. The ASEAN chair is Myanmar’s opportunity to step
forward. This issue must be raised, and not postponed, at this week’s
summit.
President Thein Sein looks forward to trying to lead
ASEAN much as he has guided Myanmar — maintaining his commitment to
improve political, social and economic development, without outside
pressure or influence. This country has shown it can stand on its own.
It is time the international community and the people of Myanmar turned
to a new chapter.
The writer is director of the office of the president of Myanmar.
