PM right to meet with Suu Kyi

Guy Baker’s objection to PM Yingluck meeting the nemesis of the Burmese military junta, Aung San Suu Kyi, as meddling in Burma’s domestic politics is somewhat unrealistic and would have been more appropriate if the visiting country was Cambodia, Singapore or Malaysia.

However, Burma, formerly a pariah state, has only recently attempted to gain respectability in allowing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to meet “the Lady” when she was in Burma. It was a small but first step for the world to welcome Burma back into the fold of being normal. Clinton would have skipped Burma if meeting the Lady had been forbidden.

On the contrary, if PM Yingluck did not attempt to meet the Lady when visiting Burma, she would have broken the decent protocol appropriately established by Hillary Clinton in helping Burma to become decent, and would have missed an opportunity for Thailand to appear as a true believer in a democratic government.

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok