Foolhardy to believe Myanmar has ‘arrived’

Though widely shared in the world’s money markets, the sense that Myanmar is “moving in the right direction” is at best naïve and at worst collusion in crime. The rosy belief was buoyed this past week when the United States excused seven state-run companies and three state banks in Myanmar from a blacklist that barred American firms from doing business with them. Meanwhile the US Treasury Department relaxed prohibitions on American companies trading through Myanmar’s largest port and airport, both of which are owned by controversial tycoon Stephen Law, son of the late Lo Hsing-han, a notorious opium warlord.

All this gooses along Myanmar’s already high economic growth and is sure to bring in more Western investors. Arriving on Sunday to cap off the celebrations, America’s secretary of state, John Kerry, wants “to signal US support for the new democratically elected, civilian-led government and further democratic and economic reforms”, in the words of the State Department.

To be sure, the peaceful transfer of power from a military regime to the civilian administration of Htin Kyaw from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy has given cynics reason to pause – as have the release of political prisoners and child soldiers and measures to improve labour standards. 

Nevertheless, the cynical view remains the astute one.

The Myanmar army continues to wage war on some of the country’s ethnic minorities even as it pays lip service to peace and reconciliation. Suppression of basic rights remains widespread. The Rohingya minority and their fellow Muslims are still being mistreated.

And, while the US has opened the door to Stephen Law seaport and airports, it has added six other companies owned by Law to its no-deals blacklist. Law is among several prominent individuals proved or suspected to be involved in the drug trade and other crimes that have yet to clear their names from the American perspective.

Debate is not about to end anytime soon over whether Washington should lift its sanctions against Myanmar and some 20 other nations. Corporate lobbyists are trying hard to make it happen, pointing out that the US economy stands to gain significantly from tapping into Myanmar’s resources, that it is one of the “last frontier” opportunities, rich in minerals and cheap labour – and still uncomfortably aligned with China.

Thankfully there are those in power in Washington willing to put sounder policy motivations ahead of business deals and geopolitics. Kerry will be looking for diplomatic ways to curry favour for American firms, but he can at least invoke long-standing US support for those who suffered under military dictatorship. Even President George W Bush, during a stopover in Bangkok, found time to meet Burmese pro-democracy activist Charm Thong here and in fact gave him more time than then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. 

Charm Thong played a key role in the preparation of the 2002 report “Licence to Rape”, which documented the use of rape as an instrument of war by the Myanmar army. Foreign companies eager to cash in on Myanmar’s new openness should re-read it, because the practice has not stopped. The rape of civilians, suppression of the Rohingya, attacks on Muslim communities and agonising displacement of other entire minorities – these are all signals that Myanmar is a long way from being “open for business”. Business might well be done there, but not in good conscience.