Engage Burma With Caution

By Nehginpao Kipgen *

The Washington Post March 15 editorial "Burma's Bullies" and March 28 letter to the editor "Engage With Burma" do not only represent the dilemmatic situation of many in the Burmese opposition, but also the Obama administration, to a certain extent.

The editorial piece highlighted some of the recent notorious imprisonments and the futility of engagement policy by neighboring countries such as Thailand and Singapore. The letter to the editor argued, however, that the United States has tried isolation and now is the time to give engagement a chance.

There are reasonable points to argue for or against isolation versus engagement and vice versa. The military junta deserves to be punished for its human rights violations and for not honoring the mandate of 1990 general election, which Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide.

The argument that Washington has tried isolation and not engagement is true. Indeed, the U.S. isolationism and subsequent economic and political sanctions have been used for over two decades since the 1988 popular uprising.

It is neither sanctions nor engagement that has failed to bring a democratic change in Burma, but the conflicting approaches of the international community. Sanctions have been championed by the western nations, while the neighboring countries took a softer stance of engagement, which has given a leeway to the military junta.

It is not only members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that engage the military, but also Asian economy heavyweights such as China, India and Japan. While China expanded its global market, its rivals India and Japan engage the military junta to check and balance the rising Beijing influence in the resource-rich Burma.

The editorial and the letter also disagreed on the question of Aung San Suu Kyi as the country's "rightful ruler." While the former argues on the ground that the 1991 Nobel laureate is a leader of a democratically elected party; the latter argues that it is "inaccurate" and emphasizing it will fail the dialogue.

At this point of time, there is no question of the popularity and acceptance of Aung San Suu Kyi as a prominent leader across the country. While her freedom from house arrest and participation in the country's reconciliation process is very essential, emphasizing her as a "rightful leader" at this juncture could further harden the military leaders.

Now that the military and the opposition led by NLD is asking the Obama administration to engage, there is no much doubt that engagement will prevail. It is rather a question of what kind of strategy the administration will pursue: engagement through a special envoy or by leaning toward country like Indonesia, which transitioned from military rule to democracy, for help.

The Obama administration should engage Burma, but with caution. Sanctions should not be lifted immediately before seeing any tangible progress on the ground. Benchmarks, including the release of political prisoners and making the democratization process inclusive, should be set.

Burma's problem is ethno-political in nature, and needs remedy.

The article first appeared in The Guardian and The Brunei Times and The Bangladesh Today

Nehginpao Kipgen

* Nehginpao Kipgen is the General Secretary of U.S.-based Kuki International Forum (www.kukiforum.com) and a researcher on the rise of political conflicts in modern Burma (1947-2004). He can be contacted at nehginpao(at)yahoo(dot)com . This article was webcasted on May 14, 2009.