C
INSIDE BURMA
. 'Fight fire with fire': junta to form new civilian militia
ANALYSIS
. Beijing remains Burma 's best friend
BOOK REVIEW
. PERFECT HOSTAGE: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi
SPORT
. Japanese soccer star to showcase skills in Rangoon
NEIGHBOUR
. Thein Sein assures China of stability in Burma
NEWS IN BURMESE
. Thein Sein assures China of stability in Burma
. Christian plant trees to protect environment
. Welcoming the last session of national convention
. Japanese soccer star to showcase skills in Rangoon
. Workshop on the rights of migrant workers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Fight fire with fire': junta to form new civilian militia
June 7, 2007 - In what appears to be the latest move to fight fire with fire, the Burmese junta yesterday decided to form another civilian militia in every township in Rangoon to take on democracy activists.
A group of youngsters, calling themselves by an absurd name 'the Best Fertilizer group', in a note sent to the Burmese media exile said, authorities in Rangoon during an emergency meeting held on June 6, at Haling Tharyar Township, decided to form a new civilian militia.
According to the note, the new militia, to be formed in every township of Rangoon , will comprise the police, township peace and development council members, fire fighters, Red Cross members and civilians.
While the information given by the Burmese group could not be independently confirmed, reports suggest that the Burmese junta is launching a rampant crackdown on political dissidents under the banner of the 'people'.
Last month, the 88 generation student group called on the junta to stop arresting, detaining and harassing peaceful protestors under the pretext of "people's" will and also urged the junta-backed civil society groups such as the Union Solidarity and Development Association and the Swan Arr Shin, people's militia, groups to stop being stooges of the junta.
Burmese authorities arrested several civilians last month, who staged protests demanding the release of pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
According to the youth group, who could not be reached for confirmation, orders have been given to respective townships in Rangoon to form a new militia, which will have 50 members.
The militia will be led by the Township police in-charge as the commander. The group will comprise the Township chairman, the first member of the township council, six each from the Red Cross and fire brigade, and 18 each from the Township peace and development council and from among civilians.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analysis)
Beijing remains Burma 's best friend
June 7, 2007 - Beijing's support for the Burmese junta has strengthened over the past few months as China's leaders see Rangoon as a corner stone of their strategy towards South-East Asia . The recent trip by the acting Burmese Prime Minister, Thein Sein to Kunming, Beijing and Shanghai underlines the new relationship which has emerged. Both countries are intent on strengthening their bilateral trade and investment ties as well as developing social and cultural exchange programmes.
But on the political front, irritations remain – with Beijing quietly pressing Rangoon to introduce concrete political reform as soon as possible. "It is no coincidence that the Generals announced the planned resumption of the National Convention in mid-July just as the junta's Prime Minister arrived in south-western China," the Thailand-based independent Burmese analyst, Win Min told Mizzima.
The National Convention will have drawn up a new constitution by the end of the year, Than Shwe told a senior Chinese diplomat earlier this year during a visit to Rangoon . It would seem that the sudden decision to move forward on the roadmap is a gesture towards Beijing . Thein Sein, who is also the key person overseeing the National Convention is expected to brief senior Chinese leaders on the constitution drafting process and the subsequent referendum, according to a senior Burmese government source.
He is also likely to outline Than Shwe's planned sweeping changes in the military command and the shake-up in the Cabinet, the source told Mizzima. "The Chinese have always been informed ahead of time of any significant planned changes, with the exception of course of the arrest of the former Prime Minister and intelligence chief, Khin Nyunt," Win Min said.
At the time Khin Nunt was Beijing's main man in the regime, often being called Burma's Deng Xiaoping – something which also angered Than Shwe. Now the Chinese have broadened their contacts with the regime – maintaining close and cordial relations with all three top Burmese generals – Than Shwe, Maung Aye and Thura Shwe Mann.
For years the Chinese leaders have feared the possibility of Maung Aye succeeding the senior general as Burma's top leader for they regarded him as pro-India and relatively anti-China. This attitude has changed in the wake of a secret mission by Maung Aye to Kunming and Beijing in the middle of last year. He was hosted by Chinese military commanders and an understanding was struck at the time, according to a senior Chinese government source in Beijing.
"Military men understand each other and talk the same language," the Chinese source told Mizzima. "They sat down together, talked and joked, as they drank strong liquor and got drunk together," he added.
Senior Chinese party representatives from Beijing also told ethnic leaders meeting in Kunming recently that they did not have a problem with Maung Aye.
Many Burmese activists have long feared that Beijing supported Rangoon unquestioningly, but this has not been the case, especially in the past. China's leaders have consistently feared that Burma's military junta lacked real legitimacy and could collapse over night, leaving Beijing powerless and its military and economic investment in the regime worthless, according to a senior party cadre who deals foreign policy issues.
China's greatest fear remains that Burma is extremely unstable, and poses a security risk, especially along its southern border. More than a million Chinese, farmers, workers and businessmen have crossed into Burma in the last ten years and are working and living there. The Chinese authorities fear that any upheaval in Burma would result in a mass exodus of Chinese back across the border, resulting in increased industrial and social unrest in their sensitive border regions.
China's other concern is that Burma's economy, far from expanding and producing business and investment opportunities for Chinese businesses, especially those based in bordering Yunnan province, the economy is actually contracting. Two decades ago, China's leaders and economists saw that the development of their relatively backward south-western provinces would rely on expanding bilateral trade with its southern neighbours, particularly Burma. So far Burma has not fulfilled the early promise.
In past few years Chinese businessmen and government enterprises have boosted their investment in Burma – Lashio, Mandalay and Muse are virtually Chinese cities now. Even in Rangoon , over the last two years Chinese business has expanded enormously. They are also involved in the building of a special tax-free export zone around the Rangoon port. "The number of Chinese restaurants in Rangoon has grown and the quality of the food served there is far better than in Bangkok," a Thai-Chinese businessman, told Mizzima.
A few years ago, when things looked bad for the economy, Chinese workers and businessmen left Rangoon, according to a Chinese-Burmese businessman, who owns one of the best-known Chinese restaurants in Rangoon. "The clientele – mainly Chinese from the mainland – steadily collapsed; now it's impossible to get a table without a booking and every evening there is a long waiting list for reservations," he said.
For the Chinese authorities Burma has also become a strategic transit point for goods produced in southern-China. They want to transport these by road to the Rangoon port for shipment to India , the Middle East and eventually Europe . Repair work is underway on Burma's antiquated internal road system that links southern China , through Mandalay to Rangoon . Now there are plans to build a road through northern Burma to Northeast India. The Chinese have agreed to finance the construction of this highway using 40,000 Chinese construction workers, according to Asian diplomatic sources in Rangoon. Some 20,000 would remain after the work is completed to do maintenance work on the road.
"When this happens the northern region of Burma will be swamped by the Chinese – government officials, workers, lorry drivers and businessmen – it will no longer be Burma," according to a senior western diplomat-based in Bangkok who has followed Burmese affairs for more than a decade.
The Chinese authorities have decided that the only way to ensure their existing investment in Burma, is to strengthen it. "More than six months ago, China's leaders sanctioned increased economic and business ties with Burma ," according to a Chinese government official. "This will be in all areas, but especially the energy sector," he added.
China already has major oil and gas concessions in western Burma , and is planning overland pipelines to bring it to southern China . The Chinese have also agreed to finance and build several major hydro-electric power stations in northern Burma.
Trade is also a high priority on Prime Minister Thein Sein's current trip to China. Many major deals are being signed, according to an Asian diplomat, based in Rangoon . Many of Burma 's leading businessmen are accompanying the Prime Minister on this trip.
Despite some irritation last year at Burma's failure to move towards political and economic reform, China 's leaders realized that Burma was its strongest ally in South East Asia. For some time Beijing as eyed suspiciously the growing American influence, especially in its traditional backyard – Cambodia and Vietnam , and to some extent in Laos as well. China 's leaders now fear that in Thailand the opposition Democrat party is going to sweep back into power if elections are held according to plan in December. The Chinese also see the Democrats as avowedly pro-US and have already threatened to overhaul or rescind the Free Trade agreement between Bangkok and Beijing .
Their only trustworthy and truly anti-American ally in the region is Burma. So strategically the junta has become increasingly important to Beijing and its relationship with South-East Asia as a whole. While there may still be irritations between the junta and China's leaders, neither side is going to allow them to endanger what in the last six months has become a very special relationship. It is one where Beijing is likely to increase giving Rangoon all that it wants.
Larry Jagan is a freelance journalist and Burma specialist based in Bangkok. He was formerly the News and Current Affairs editor for Asia and the Pacific at the BBC World Service.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Book review)
PERFECT HOSTAGE: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi
Reviewed By: Lemyao Shimray
Perfect Hostage came as a perfect gift on my birthday on April 2007. The book comes with the face of 'The Lady' with mild collages of life. The look on her eyes is full of determination. Her face behind the bars on the cover of the book does not reflect arrogance or aggression but determination. The message it conveys is not only she but Burma is behind bars. Her name is more than just a name, her stance more than defiance of autocracy. She is an international symbol of heroism and peaceful resistance to oppression. An idol representing Burma and its resistance, comes through in Perfect Hostage.
Aung San Suu Kyi has become an iconic figure like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. The Lady and her followers suffered a murderous attack by junta backed mobs in Depayin and the author does not leave any stones unturned; justification, proof, no room for argument. Justin Wintle gives a detailed narration of the attempt on Suu Kyi's life. She was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 1991 and since 1998 she has steadfastly opposed Burma's brutal military regime, instituted by General Ne Win in 1962. Aung San Suu Kyi has also endured involuntary separation from her family – her English husband, Dr Michael Aris, and their two sons. Aris's death in 1999 was yet another cruel twist of the knife. But being committed to her people, nothing deflected Suu Kyi from the course she has adopted. She was first placed under house arrest in 1989. Today she is again under house arrest, where the junta has extended detention for another year, till 2008, despite mass protests across the world.
Perfect Hostage comes across as a rare non fiction narrative that raises your suspense even tough you know the day, the date and the year well.
More than her life, Justin portrays the state of the Burmese people. He writes about the suffering of those fighting for democracy, the junta's stranglehold on the country and Suu Kyi's father's life, all revolving around 'The lady' and her life. Her martyred father – General Aung San- led Burma to independence from the British. But if Aung San's legacy has profoundly affected his daughter's choice, so too has the disciplined upbringing given her by her widowed mother. The author asks searching questions along the way.
"Is her father's status as hero really vouchsafed? And is Aung San Suu Kyi's insistence on non-violence really best calculated to bring down a junta incapable of acting in good faith?"
It's not an easy answer and never was.
The five hundred page novel, Justin Wintle succeed s in narrating the complete loop of Burma and its history. The book is more to do with Suu Kyi's country rather than her personal life and more detailed narration of her father's life than hers. But with great details of her father's story, and, vitally, the story of the Burmese people at large, Wintle lays bare the ambiguities which nourish a tragedy that is national as well as personal. The uniqueness of this book is the author's achievement in capturing, in considerable length, the story of the bloodied chart of Burma and the character of the woman behind its history. Many words were penned down in her name, many works shown, but I have not yet came across a well structured and literally accounted work on Suu Kyi, her life, her country, her father, as in the Perfect Hostage.
About the Author:
Austin Wintle is a British writer, reviewer and journalist. The author was educated in Stowe School and Magdalen College, Oxford, and he holds degrees in Modern History. The many books he has written include Romancing Vietnam: Inside the Boat Country, The Vietnam Wars, Furious Interiors: Wales, R. S. Thomas and God and the Rough Guide histories of China, Islam and Spain. The most recent of several reference works he has compiled and edited is the two-volume New Makers of Modern Culture. He has been a regular contributor to the Financial Times, The Sunday Times and The Independent, and in 1998 he became the recipient of an Arts Council Writers' Award. He lives in London.
Extract:
FAMOUSLY ALONE
When I was under house arrest, here on my own, I would come down at night and walk around and look up at his photograph and feel very close to him. I would say to him then: ' It's you and me, father, against them.'
Aung San Suu Kyi, in Fergal Keane, 'The Lady Who Frightens Generals',
The Sunday Times, 14th July 1996
Since October 1991 and the winning of the Noble prize, Aung San Suu Kyi has been feted with scores more award and accolades, none of which she has been able to accept in person.
...it has all become a bit of bandwagon, made almost comic by Suu Kyi's declared distaste for anything that vaguely hints of personality cult. Where she has been able, she has always indicated that her acceptance of honours is on behalf of the Burmese people, not herself. But in the perennial search for the ultimate embodiment of human goodness, she has been seized upon, not so much by Hollywood or Rockwood, but by a plethora of more-or-less interconnected august institutions, whether governmental, intergovernmental, supra governmental, academic or right-voluntarist. If, in the modern , mass, visual-image-led perception of heroes and heroines, she has yet to attain the pure iconic status of Che Guevara, the beneficiary of a single photograph and the enduring mascot of the anti-capitalist brigade, she has become revered by thousands who have neither visited Burma nor directly experienced the deadpan stare of its military dictatorship.
Although there can be no questioning Aung San Suu Kyi's fortitude and obstinacy for justice, she is more interesting than the hype allows. The announcement of the Noble Prize in October 1991 was accompanied by the publication of Freedom form Fear, a collection of writings by and about Aung San Suu Kyi...Vaclav Havel, who had nominated her for the prize, furnished a forward. ' She is an outstanding example of the power of the powerless,' he wrote.
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Japanese soccer star to showcase skills in Rangoon
June 7, 2007 - Retired Japanese football star, Hidetoshi Nakata, who is touring Burma, will showcase his expertise in a special match arranged in Rangoon today, according to the Myanmar Football Federation.
Nakata, who is on a private tour, agreed to the offer by the chairman of the MFF to play a friendly match in Rangoon, an MFF official told Mizzima.
"He [Nakata] is on a tour of Burma. We did not invite him to showcase his skills. U Kyaw Swa, chairman of the MFF, met him on the plane and asked him to play the match," the official said.
The special match, to be played in Rangoon's Thuwanah stadium, will be a friendly one and the entry prices for special rows are marked at a thousand kyat while ordinary tickets are for 500 kyat, an MFF official told Mizzima.
Nakata will play for the former Burmese national team against the new Burmese team, which is trained by Marcos Anthonio, a Brazilian coach.
Nakata began his football career in 1995. He played for the Italian clubs of Roma and Pama and later shifted to an English club of Bolton. He was named the best Asian football of the year in 1997 and 1998 consecutively. He retired from soccer in 2006.
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Thein Sein assures China of stability in Burma
June 7, 2007 - Burma's acting Prime Minister Lt-Gen Thein Sein, who led a delegation to China on Tuesday, has briefed Chinese officials on Burma's internal situation and the progress made by his government.
Thein Sein, who is also the first secretary of Burma's ruling junta's - State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) - briefed Chinese officials on the progress of its much hyped "roadmap to democracy", which currently is into its first phase –the national convention.
According to the official Chinese media, Xinhua, the Burmese general also expressed Burma's willingness to strengthen bilateral trade and commerce with China.
During the meeting with the Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan on Tuesday, the Burmese delegation indicated that its plans to wind up the national convention this year and begin the second phase of its roadmap.
Mya Maung, a Burmese military analyst based on the Sino -Burma border said the Burmese delegates are likely to explain and reaffirm their commitment to China and are likely to assure that measures are being taken to clear ethnic rebels along the Sino-Burmese border, a situation which is worrying Beijing.
"They [the delegates] are also likely to touch on Burma's relationship with India," added Maung.
Maung said China is concerned about Burma's political stability. For the investments that it has made, China requires stability for a minimum of a decade.
"With the roads it has built and the railway projects that it plans to implement along with the gas pipelines to be constructed to import gas, China requires stability in the region," said Maung.
According a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release, Tang told Thein Sein that China "sincerely hopes Myanmar [Burma] could maintain stability, national concord and economic development, which serve the fundamental interests of Myanmar's [Burmese] people and are conducive to regional peace, stability and development.
Tang, during an official visit to Burma in February had emphasized on maintaining stability in the region.
Besides meeting Tang, Thein Sein and the delagtion members also met the Chairman of China's Standing Committee of National People's Congress, Wu Bangguo, and the Vice-Chairman of the Committee, Li Tieying.
Thein Sein, who visited Beijing on the invitation of Tang, during his various meetings with Chinese officials, assured his government's willingness to expand bilateral relationship on trade and other sectors.
INSIDE BURMA
. 'Fight fire with fire': junta to form new civilian militia
ANALYSIS
. Beijing remains Burma 's best friend
BOOK REVIEW
. PERFECT HOSTAGE: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi
SPORT
. Japanese soccer star to showcase skills in Rangoon
NEIGHBOUR
. Thein Sein assures China of stability in Burma
NEWS IN BURMESE
. Thein Sein assures China of stability in Burma
. Christian plant trees to protect environment
. Welcoming the last session of national convention
. Japanese soccer star to showcase skills in Rangoon
. Workshop on the rights of migrant workers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Fight fire with fire': junta to form new civilian militia
June 7, 2007 - In what appears to be the latest move to fight fire with fire, the Burmese junta yesterday decided to form another civilian militia in every township in Rangoon to take on democracy activists.
A group of youngsters, calling themselves by an absurd name 'the Best Fertilizer group', in a note sent to the Burmese media exile said, authorities in Rangoon during an emergency meeting held on June 6, at Haling Tharyar Township, decided to form a new civilian militia.
According to the note, the new militia, to be formed in every township of Rangoon , will comprise the police, township peace and development council members, fire fighters, Red Cross members and civilians.
While the information given by the Burmese group could not be independently confirmed, reports suggest that the Burmese junta is launching a rampant crackdown on political dissidents under the banner of the 'people'.
Last month, the 88 generation student group called on the junta to stop arresting, detaining and harassing peaceful protestors under the pretext of "people's" will and also urged the junta-backed civil society groups such as the Union Solidarity and Development Association and the Swan Arr Shin, people's militia, groups to stop being stooges of the junta.
Burmese authorities arrested several civilians last month, who staged protests demanding the release of pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
According to the youth group, who could not be reached for confirmation, orders have been given to respective townships in Rangoon to form a new militia, which will have 50 members.
The militia will be led by the Township police in-charge as the commander. The group will comprise the Township chairman, the first member of the township council, six each from the Red Cross and fire brigade, and 18 each from the Township peace and development council and from among civilians.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analysis)
Beijing remains Burma 's best friend
June 7, 2007 - Beijing's support for the Burmese junta has strengthened over the past few months as China's leaders see Rangoon as a corner stone of their strategy towards South-East Asia . The recent trip by the acting Burmese Prime Minister, Thein Sein to Kunming, Beijing and Shanghai underlines the new relationship which has emerged. Both countries are intent on strengthening their bilateral trade and investment ties as well as developing social and cultural exchange programmes.
But on the political front, irritations remain – with Beijing quietly pressing Rangoon to introduce concrete political reform as soon as possible. "It is no coincidence that the Generals announced the planned resumption of the National Convention in mid-July just as the junta's Prime Minister arrived in south-western China," the Thailand-based independent Burmese analyst, Win Min told Mizzima.
The National Convention will have drawn up a new constitution by the end of the year, Than Shwe told a senior Chinese diplomat earlier this year during a visit to Rangoon . It would seem that the sudden decision to move forward on the roadmap is a gesture towards Beijing . Thein Sein, who is also the key person overseeing the National Convention is expected to brief senior Chinese leaders on the constitution drafting process and the subsequent referendum, according to a senior Burmese government source.
He is also likely to outline Than Shwe's planned sweeping changes in the military command and the shake-up in the Cabinet, the source told Mizzima. "The Chinese have always been informed ahead of time of any significant planned changes, with the exception of course of the arrest of the former Prime Minister and intelligence chief, Khin Nyunt," Win Min said.
At the time Khin Nunt was Beijing's main man in the regime, often being called Burma's Deng Xiaoping – something which also angered Than Shwe. Now the Chinese have broadened their contacts with the regime – maintaining close and cordial relations with all three top Burmese generals – Than Shwe, Maung Aye and Thura Shwe Mann.
For years the Chinese leaders have feared the possibility of Maung Aye succeeding the senior general as Burma's top leader for they regarded him as pro-India and relatively anti-China. This attitude has changed in the wake of a secret mission by Maung Aye to Kunming and Beijing in the middle of last year. He was hosted by Chinese military commanders and an understanding was struck at the time, according to a senior Chinese government source in Beijing.
"Military men understand each other and talk the same language," the Chinese source told Mizzima. "They sat down together, talked and joked, as they drank strong liquor and got drunk together," he added.
Senior Chinese party representatives from Beijing also told ethnic leaders meeting in Kunming recently that they did not have a problem with Maung Aye.
Many Burmese activists have long feared that Beijing supported Rangoon unquestioningly, but this has not been the case, especially in the past. China's leaders have consistently feared that Burma's military junta lacked real legitimacy and could collapse over night, leaving Beijing powerless and its military and economic investment in the regime worthless, according to a senior party cadre who deals foreign policy issues.
China's greatest fear remains that Burma is extremely unstable, and poses a security risk, especially along its southern border. More than a million Chinese, farmers, workers and businessmen have crossed into Burma in the last ten years and are working and living there. The Chinese authorities fear that any upheaval in Burma would result in a mass exodus of Chinese back across the border, resulting in increased industrial and social unrest in their sensitive border regions.
China's other concern is that Burma's economy, far from expanding and producing business and investment opportunities for Chinese businesses, especially those based in bordering Yunnan province, the economy is actually contracting. Two decades ago, China's leaders and economists saw that the development of their relatively backward south-western provinces would rely on expanding bilateral trade with its southern neighbours, particularly Burma. So far Burma has not fulfilled the early promise.
In past few years Chinese businessmen and government enterprises have boosted their investment in Burma – Lashio, Mandalay and Muse are virtually Chinese cities now. Even in Rangoon , over the last two years Chinese business has expanded enormously. They are also involved in the building of a special tax-free export zone around the Rangoon port. "The number of Chinese restaurants in Rangoon has grown and the quality of the food served there is far better than in Bangkok," a Thai-Chinese businessman, told Mizzima.
A few years ago, when things looked bad for the economy, Chinese workers and businessmen left Rangoon, according to a Chinese-Burmese businessman, who owns one of the best-known Chinese restaurants in Rangoon. "The clientele – mainly Chinese from the mainland – steadily collapsed; now it's impossible to get a table without a booking and every evening there is a long waiting list for reservations," he said.
For the Chinese authorities Burma has also become a strategic transit point for goods produced in southern-China. They want to transport these by road to the Rangoon port for shipment to India , the Middle East and eventually Europe . Repair work is underway on Burma's antiquated internal road system that links southern China , through Mandalay to Rangoon . Now there are plans to build a road through northern Burma to Northeast India. The Chinese have agreed to finance the construction of this highway using 40,000 Chinese construction workers, according to Asian diplomatic sources in Rangoon. Some 20,000 would remain after the work is completed to do maintenance work on the road.
"When this happens the northern region of Burma will be swamped by the Chinese – government officials, workers, lorry drivers and businessmen – it will no longer be Burma," according to a senior western diplomat-based in Bangkok who has followed Burmese affairs for more than a decade.
The Chinese authorities have decided that the only way to ensure their existing investment in Burma, is to strengthen it. "More than six months ago, China's leaders sanctioned increased economic and business ties with Burma ," according to a Chinese government official. "This will be in all areas, but especially the energy sector," he added.
China already has major oil and gas concessions in western Burma , and is planning overland pipelines to bring it to southern China . The Chinese have also agreed to finance and build several major hydro-electric power stations in northern Burma.
Trade is also a high priority on Prime Minister Thein Sein's current trip to China. Many major deals are being signed, according to an Asian diplomat, based in Rangoon . Many of Burma 's leading businessmen are accompanying the Prime Minister on this trip.
Despite some irritation last year at Burma's failure to move towards political and economic reform, China 's leaders realized that Burma was its strongest ally in South East Asia. For some time Beijing as eyed suspiciously the growing American influence, especially in its traditional backyard – Cambodia and Vietnam , and to some extent in Laos as well. China 's leaders now fear that in Thailand the opposition Democrat party is going to sweep back into power if elections are held according to plan in December. The Chinese also see the Democrats as avowedly pro-US and have already threatened to overhaul or rescind the Free Trade agreement between Bangkok and Beijing .
Their only trustworthy and truly anti-American ally in the region is Burma. So strategically the junta has become increasingly important to Beijing and its relationship with South-East Asia as a whole. While there may still be irritations between the junta and China's leaders, neither side is going to allow them to endanger what in the last six months has become a very special relationship. It is one where Beijing is likely to increase giving Rangoon all that it wants.
Larry Jagan is a freelance journalist and Burma specialist based in Bangkok. He was formerly the News and Current Affairs editor for Asia and the Pacific at the BBC World Service.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Book review)
PERFECT HOSTAGE: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi
Reviewed By: Lemyao Shimray
Perfect Hostage came as a perfect gift on my birthday on April 2007. The book comes with the face of 'The Lady' with mild collages of life. The look on her eyes is full of determination. Her face behind the bars on the cover of the book does not reflect arrogance or aggression but determination. The message it conveys is not only she but Burma is behind bars. Her name is more than just a name, her stance more than defiance of autocracy. She is an international symbol of heroism and peaceful resistance to oppression. An idol representing Burma and its resistance, comes through in Perfect Hostage.
Aung San Suu Kyi has become an iconic figure like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. The Lady and her followers suffered a murderous attack by junta backed mobs in Depayin and the author does not leave any stones unturned; justification, proof, no room for argument. Justin Wintle gives a detailed narration of the attempt on Suu Kyi's life. She was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 1991 and since 1998 she has steadfastly opposed Burma's brutal military regime, instituted by General Ne Win in 1962. Aung San Suu Kyi has also endured involuntary separation from her family – her English husband, Dr Michael Aris, and their two sons. Aris's death in 1999 was yet another cruel twist of the knife. But being committed to her people, nothing deflected Suu Kyi from the course she has adopted. She was first placed under house arrest in 1989. Today she is again under house arrest, where the junta has extended detention for another year, till 2008, despite mass protests across the world.
Perfect Hostage comes across as a rare non fiction narrative that raises your suspense even tough you know the day, the date and the year well.
More than her life, Justin portrays the state of the Burmese people. He writes about the suffering of those fighting for democracy, the junta's stranglehold on the country and Suu Kyi's father's life, all revolving around 'The lady' and her life. Her martyred father – General Aung San- led Burma to independence from the British. But if Aung San's legacy has profoundly affected his daughter's choice, so too has the disciplined upbringing given her by her widowed mother. The author asks searching questions along the way.
"Is her father's status as hero really vouchsafed? And is Aung San Suu Kyi's insistence on non-violence really best calculated to bring down a junta incapable of acting in good faith?"
It's not an easy answer and never was.
The five hundred page novel, Justin Wintle succeed s in narrating the complete loop of Burma and its history. The book is more to do with Suu Kyi's country rather than her personal life and more detailed narration of her father's life than hers. But with great details of her father's story, and, vitally, the story of the Burmese people at large, Wintle lays bare the ambiguities which nourish a tragedy that is national as well as personal. The uniqueness of this book is the author's achievement in capturing, in considerable length, the story of the bloodied chart of Burma and the character of the woman behind its history. Many words were penned down in her name, many works shown, but I have not yet came across a well structured and literally accounted work on Suu Kyi, her life, her country, her father, as in the Perfect Hostage.
About the Author:
Austin Wintle is a British writer, reviewer and journalist. The author was educated in Stowe School and Magdalen College, Oxford, and he holds degrees in Modern History. The many books he has written include Romancing Vietnam: Inside the Boat Country, The Vietnam Wars, Furious Interiors: Wales, R. S. Thomas and God and the Rough Guide histories of China, Islam and Spain. The most recent of several reference works he has compiled and edited is the two-volume New Makers of Modern Culture. He has been a regular contributor to the Financial Times, The Sunday Times and The Independent, and in 1998 he became the recipient of an Arts Council Writers' Award. He lives in London.
Extract:
FAMOUSLY ALONE
When I was under house arrest, here on my own, I would come down at night and walk around and look up at his photograph and feel very close to him. I would say to him then: ' It's you and me, father, against them.'
Aung San Suu Kyi, in Fergal Keane, 'The Lady Who Frightens Generals',
The Sunday Times, 14th July 1996
Since October 1991 and the winning of the Noble prize, Aung San Suu Kyi has been feted with scores more award and accolades, none of which she has been able to accept in person.
...it has all become a bit of bandwagon, made almost comic by Suu Kyi's declared distaste for anything that vaguely hints of personality cult. Where she has been able, she has always indicated that her acceptance of honours is on behalf of the Burmese people, not herself. But in the perennial search for the ultimate embodiment of human goodness, she has been seized upon, not so much by Hollywood or Rockwood, but by a plethora of more-or-less interconnected august institutions, whether governmental, intergovernmental, supra governmental, academic or right-voluntarist. If, in the modern , mass, visual-image-led perception of heroes and heroines, she has yet to attain the pure iconic status of Che Guevara, the beneficiary of a single photograph and the enduring mascot of the anti-capitalist brigade, she has become revered by thousands who have neither visited Burma nor directly experienced the deadpan stare of its military dictatorship.
Although there can be no questioning Aung San Suu Kyi's fortitude and obstinacy for justice, she is more interesting than the hype allows. The announcement of the Noble Prize in October 1991 was accompanied by the publication of Freedom form Fear, a collection of writings by and about Aung San Suu Kyi...Vaclav Havel, who had nominated her for the prize, furnished a forward. ' She is an outstanding example of the power of the powerless,' he wrote.
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Japanese soccer star to showcase skills in Rangoon
June 7, 2007 - Retired Japanese football star, Hidetoshi Nakata, who is touring Burma, will showcase his expertise in a special match arranged in Rangoon today, according to the Myanmar Football Federation.
Nakata, who is on a private tour, agreed to the offer by the chairman of the MFF to play a friendly match in Rangoon, an MFF official told Mizzima.
"He [Nakata] is on a tour of Burma. We did not invite him to showcase his skills. U Kyaw Swa, chairman of the MFF, met him on the plane and asked him to play the match," the official said.
The special match, to be played in Rangoon's Thuwanah stadium, will be a friendly one and the entry prices for special rows are marked at a thousand kyat while ordinary tickets are for 500 kyat, an MFF official told Mizzima.
Nakata will play for the former Burmese national team against the new Burmese team, which is trained by Marcos Anthonio, a Brazilian coach.
Nakata began his football career in 1995. He played for the Italian clubs of Roma and Pama and later shifted to an English club of Bolton. He was named the best Asian football of the year in 1997 and 1998 consecutively. He retired from soccer in 2006.
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Thein Sein assures China of stability in Burma
June 7, 2007 - Burma's acting Prime Minister Lt-Gen Thein Sein, who led a delegation to China on Tuesday, has briefed Chinese officials on Burma's internal situation and the progress made by his government.
Thein Sein, who is also the first secretary of Burma's ruling junta's - State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) - briefed Chinese officials on the progress of its much hyped "roadmap to democracy", which currently is into its first phase –the national convention.
According to the official Chinese media, Xinhua, the Burmese general also expressed Burma's willingness to strengthen bilateral trade and commerce with China.
During the meeting with the Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan on Tuesday, the Burmese delegation indicated that its plans to wind up the national convention this year and begin the second phase of its roadmap.
Mya Maung, a Burmese military analyst based on the Sino -Burma border said the Burmese delegates are likely to explain and reaffirm their commitment to China and are likely to assure that measures are being taken to clear ethnic rebels along the Sino-Burmese border, a situation which is worrying Beijing.
"They [the delegates] are also likely to touch on Burma's relationship with India," added Maung.
Maung said China is concerned about Burma's political stability. For the investments that it has made, China requires stability for a minimum of a decade.
"With the roads it has built and the railway projects that it plans to implement along with the gas pipelines to be constructed to import gas, China requires stability in the region," said Maung.
According a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release, Tang told Thein Sein that China "sincerely hopes Myanmar [Burma] could maintain stability, national concord and economic development, which serve the fundamental interests of Myanmar's [Burmese] people and are conducive to regional peace, stability and development.
Tang, during an official visit to Burma in February had emphasized on maintaining stability in the region.
Besides meeting Tang, Thein Sein and the delagtion members also met the Chairman of China's Standing Committee of National People's Congress, Wu Bangguo, and the Vice-Chairman of the Committee, Li Tieying.
Thein Sein, who visited Beijing on the invitation of Tang, during his various meetings with Chinese officials, assured his government's willingness to expand bilateral relationship on trade and other sectors.
