Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said yesterday that Westerners are overly critical of Myanmar and he has newfound respect for the ruling junta after learning that they meditate like good Buddhists should.
"Westerners have a saying, `Look at both sides of the coin,' but Westerners only look at one side," Samak said in his weekly television talk show, two days after an official visit to Myanmar.
"Myanmar is a Buddhist country. Myanmar's leaders meditate. They say the country lives in peace," Samak said, noting that he has studied Myanmar for decades but just learned that the junta meditates.
Both countries are predominantly Buddhist.
Myanmar's junta has come under global criticism for its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters last year and its detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but Samak said he preferred to talk about trade during talks with junta chief Senior General Than Shwe.
Many Western nations maintain economic and political sanctions against the regime for its poor human rights record and failure to give power to a democratically elected government.
But Thailand and most other Southeast Asian nations are less critical and encourage companies to do business there.
Samak said he discussed investment opportunities for Thai companies in Myanmar, especially in the area of production and exploitation of natural gas and hydropower projects.
"We want to do something about dams. Than Shwe told me, `You can do it here and here and here. Find the investors and do it,'" said Samak, whose coalition government took office last month. "Myanmar only uses a small amount of electricity. Thailand needs electricity."
Blackouts and power cuts are common in Myanmar, where the military regime has distributed electricity under a rationing system for the past decade, barely keeping up with rising demand.
"They found new gas resources. I negotiated with them so we can sign contracts," Samak said, adding that the junta wants to build a pipeline to Yangon. "Myanmar doesn't have money to build the pipeline. Thai companies will do that for them."
He said Thailand's approach to dealing with Myanmar was in the spirit of neighborly relations.
"We have three neighbors: Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar," he said. "We use their resources, all three of them. If we have this great relationship, why should we pick on them?"
Thailand also shares a border with Malaysia.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS