Myanmar
vowed on Saturday to address concerns raised by President Barack Obama,
outlining far-reaching plans to make peace with ethnic rebels, gradually
release all political prisoners and relax controls on freedom of expression.
But its government, fearing an Arab
Spring-style revolution if it moves too quickly, stressed reforms must be
gradual after nearly a half century of isolation and authoritarian rule that
ended when the army handed power in March to a civilian parliament stacked with
former generals.
No longer Southeast Asia's pariah state,
Myanmar won a powerful endorsement on Friday when Obama announced Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton would visit the resource-rich country neighboring China,
the highest-ranking American to do so since a 1962 military coup. Obama cited
"flickers of progress."
That came a day after Southeast Asian leaders
approved of Myanmar, also known as Burma, as chairman of its regional ASEAN
bloc in 2014, paving the way for a more influential role.
"We are trying our best to make an
effective transition to democracy," Ko Ko Hlaing, chief political adviser
to President Thein Sein, told Reuters in a wide-ranging, hour-long interview on
the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Bali, Indonesia.
The fact he spoke at all is significant.
Myanmar delegations studiously avoid the media at regional forums, quietly
entering and leaving through auditorium backdoors. This year, officials stopped
in hallways to take questions, sometimes with the flash of a smile, appearing
to relish their moment.
For many Burmese such as Ko Ko Hlaing, it
feels overdue.
The 55-year-old former military officer once
managed a team of government researchers. They studied international affairs,
and watched as the world changed, first with the Internet and then as democracy
took root in the Philippines and Indonesia, itself an authoritarian state until
the late 1990s.
Later, he became a radio and television
personality before taking up his current post as the top advisor to the president.,
describing himself now as a "conscious reformer" who wants
"dynamic but systematic and stable changes."
Some conservatives, however, want Myanmar to
go slower and a very small minority want no change at all, he said. "It is
very difficult to change a mindset," he said. "But almost all of the
people accept that changes are needed. The train is leaving."
Coming changes, he said, will directly address
Obama's concerns, including improving treatment of ethnic minorities and
releasing remaining political prisoners.
Diplomats say those conditions must be met for
the United States and the European Union to end punitive sanctions that have
isolated Myanmar and pushed it closer to China. They were imposed in response
to rights abuses, including the killing of thousands of pro-democracy
supporters.
"REAL
ELECTIONS"
Clinton told FOX News she wants to see "a
real political process and real elections."
The Myanmar official said that will happen.
More political prisoners, he said, would be released once the government
determines the 230 activists freed in an October 12 amnesty had smoothly
returned to society and politics.
"If it is OK, there will be a more
immediate release of the next batch," he said.
The test may come soon when the National
League for Democracy, the party of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi,
contests by-elections expected in late December. The party ended a boycott of
Myanmar's political system on Friday by announcing it would register for the
elections.
Her party, whose landslide electoral victory
in 1990 was voided by the military, will give the elections a degree of
credibility and possibly pave the way for more prisoners to be released if the
vote goes smoothly.
Suu Kyi, herself released in 2010 from years
of house arrest, has said about 400 activists remain behind bars.
"There is no concrete reason to delay the
release of the political prisoners," said Ko Ko Hlaing.
But he said Arab pro-democracy uprisings made
Myanmar cautious in moving too fast.
"As you can see in the Arab states and
also in Syria, there is some turmoil. Even in Egypt. There were mobs. So what
our leaders would like to see is a stable and smooth transition to
democracy," he said. "Some prisoners committed terrorist acts. We are
worried about this, that they may shake the boat."
Diplomats say the government may fear former
military officers arrested in 2004 when former military intelligence chief and
prime minister Khin Nyunt was accused of corruption and purged, but Ko Ko
Hlaing dismissed this concern.
"He will be equally treated as other
prisoners," he said.
MINORITY
PEACE PROCESS
Another U.S. priority, Clinton said, is ending
Myanmar's "terrible conflicts with ethnic minorities."
That, too, is in the works, Ko Ko Hlaing said.
The government, he said, is in talks with
minority groups, including ethnic Kachin separatists who fought the army this
year after the collapse of negotiations aimed at ending a conflict that dates
to the 1960s along the Chinese border.
"The peace process with the Kachin group
is very slow currently. But we are trying to break the stalemate and we are
trying to find other ways to make advances in the peace process," he said,
adding the government was reaching out to ethnic Kachin elders but did not want
international mediation.
A ceasefire agreed in 1994 fell through last
year when the government tried to force all ethnic minority forces to merge
with its military-run Border Guard Force.
Guerrillas of the Kachin Independence Army say
they fear a merger would erode their autonomy. Their force numbers at least
10,000 well-armed and experienced fighters.
The government is also at odds with the Karen
National Union (KNU) and its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army,
which has fought the government for more autonomy since 1949.
Racked by defections and dissension, the KNU,
once the largest of the armed ethnic groups, is a shadow of its former self. It
suffered a major setback in late 1994 when a Buddhist faction calling itself
the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) staged a mutiny against the
Christian-dominated group, breaking away and defecting to the government.
A faction of DKBA fighters have resisted being
forced into the Border Guard Force.
Ko Ko Hlaing said the government aimed to
pacify Karens and other ethnic groups with economic incentives, not violence.
"Without peace and security, we cannot
make any development projects in those areas. And unless those areas are developed,
the insurgency is prolonged for a long time. It is a chicken-and-egg scenario
and we have to break eggs," he said.
The government, he said, had made progress
with other minority groups. "We are now negotiating with the Wa group in
the southern Shan states and some associated groups, and these negotiations are
under progress."
A new media law is also in the works, he said,
after decades in which every song, book, cartoon and planned piece of art
required approval by censors rooting out political messages.
"Our new media law will reflect
guaranteed freedom of expression, so no censorship. But there will be some
monitoring systems," he said. "The censorship will only be cultural
and religious. Other than that they can express opinions freely."
In September, Myanmar lifted bans on prominent
news websites, including some run by government critics that were blocked at
the peak of an army crackdown on monk-led protests in 2007. In August,
state-run newspapers dropped back-page banners attacking the West.
"We have to change the mindsets and
attitude of all of society," he said.
Reuters
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