After more than 50 years of military rule, Myanmar, a country long shunned by the international community, has almost overnight become the target of overtures from competing great powers scrambling to befriend it. Myanmar’s junta, which has long suppressed the democratic movement and scrupulously engaged in the ethnic cleansing of arbitrarily imprisoned dissidents, and which is only now allowing the country’s first daily newspaper, to everyone’s surprise, suddenly finds itself in the country’s vanguard for democratic reform.
For Myanmar, this is both flattering and surprising. It is flattering because the country is being called upon by the US, Japan and other world powers. It is surprising because one after another of these big powers come bearing gifts, and they do so without mentioning the junta’s deplorable human rights record. The whole exercise is clearly aimed at co-opting Myanmar.
It all began with former US secretary of state Hilary Rodham Clinton’s ice-breaking visit in November 2011, when she officially cleared the stage for working with Myanmar to contain China. That was followed by US President Barack Obama’s visit in November on his way to participate in the East Asia Summit in Cambodia, making him the first sitting US president to make a state visit to Myanmar. The US’ wish to use Myanmar as a fulcrum point in its attempts to balance China’s military expansion is becoming increasingly clearer. Last week, Burmese President Thein Sein used this situation to his advantage when he became Myanmar’s first leader in 47 years to visit Washington, where he hoped to have international economic sanctions against his country lifted.
Japan does not want to be left out and it has officially included Myanmar in its “arc policy” aimed at containing China. In January, Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso visited Myanmar to write off the ￥50 billion (US$500 million) it was owed and to include Myanmar in its Arc of Freedom and Prosperity. On Sunday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also visited Myanmar, bringing a huge gift of ￥230 billion in official aid and encouraging Japanese businesses to invest in Myanmar to diminish its dependence on the Chinese market.
However, the authoritarian nature of Myanmar’s military rule in fact remains unchanged, and it is the big powers that suddenly are in a rush to change.
Ever since the conflict between China and Japan over sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) intensified, and with the US “rebalancing” toward Asia, the drive to co-opt China’s neighboring states has become the latest trend in international politics. Myanmar, which controls access to the South Asian mainland and Indochina, and which is where China is trying to obtain a port on the Indian Ocean, is becoming the greatest beneficiary of the US return to Asia.
After Thein Sein came to power in 2011, he jumped on the US’ rebalancing bandwagon and his strategy to gradually relax media controls, release a few political prisoners, lift Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest and extend minor goodwill toward dissidents was well received by Western countries. However, it is still unclear if the military government will voluntarily give up its military rule, allow Aung San Suu Kyi to run for president in 2015 and allow the National League for Democracy to become the largest parliamentary party in general elections.
In other words, as the international community lifts economic sanctions and things are looking bright for Myanmar, democracy still has to make its appearance.
Tsai Zheng-jia is head of Asia-Pacific studies at National Chengchi University’s Institute of International Relations.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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