Category: Burma
Why Pressure PRC Over Myanmar?
That was the headline of a column in Friday’s Taipei Times. The author gave his reasons for not pressuring China over the matter, but completely undercut his argument with a single paragraph:
Beijing has substantial economic interests in Myanmar, with US$1.4 billion in trade last year. Moreover, the Chinese military is improving Myanmar’s harbors and has established an electronic listening post on Myanmar’s Coco Islands. Beijing also hopes to build a US$2 billion pipeline to improve access to oil in the Middle East.
So, why pressure the PRC over Burma? -Uh, ’cause they’ve got lots of leverage?
But the writer did have a point elsewhere:
Yet why single out Beijing? The Burmese dictatorship has more than its share of enablers.
To start, the US company Chevron, through its subsidiary Unocal, remains active in Myanmar. So are several European companies. Thailand is the largest purchaser of Burmese products. The state electrical company Egat plans to construct dams in Myanmar. Next on the list is India. Major exporters to Myanmar include Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea.
And that is true. Last month, Armed Liberal at Winds of Change provided a link to a list of foreign companies that do business in Burma. One company I thought was of particular local interest:
Asia Optical
Asia Optical is a Taiwanese company and is one of the biggest lens producers in the world. It invested $12m in Burma to build a lens factory, which opened in early 2004. Customers of Asia Optical include: Canon, Epson, Hitachi, Kodak, Konica, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Sony, and Sharp.Mr Robert Lai
Chairman
Asia Optical
No. 22-3 South 2nd Road
T.E.P.Z, Taichung 427
Taiwan R.O.C
Email: service@asia-optical.com.tw
UPDATE: The Myanmar Times confirms that Asia Optical built a lens factory in Burma in 2004 for $12 million, but states that the parent company is based in Hong Kong, rather than Taiwan.
Freedom’s Martyrs
It looks as though the uprising in Burma has been put down:
Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma’s ruling junta has revealed.
The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you’ve heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand."
(Executed Buddhist monk in Burma. Image from the Daily Mail)
Faced with such pictures, some will wonder, "Was it worth it?" For the Burmese COULD have kept quiet – and lived. Instead they protested – and wound up floating face down in dirty jungle rivers. The poet once asked:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?
Rather than answer directly, I’ll instead point to the consequences of another failed uprising, which took place in Europe. The cost was staggering: 200,000 civilians dead, 85% of Warsaw’s buildings destroyed, the surviving members of the Polish Home Army sent to German POW camps – then subsequently persecuted (or murdered) by the Soviets.
In short, the 1944 Warsaw Uprising was just about as complete and total a defeat as one could possibly imagine. And yet despite that failure, the Home Army’s heroism in the face of tyranny was NOT for nothing. That’s because it was an inspiration, an example, for future Poles demanding THEIR freedoms, many years later.
For the Burmese, this may all sound like small consolation, particularly now. But alas, that is all I can offer.
POSTSCRIPT: At the Belmont Club, Wretchard gives his assessment to a Burmese letter writer, on the way forward.
You will be lonely, but there is no help for it. I would be dishonest if I said that the road to freedom was anything else but long, wearying and full of pain. But I know that is the road that you long to take. "Death and sorrow will be the companions of your journey, hardship your garment, constancy and valor your only shield." That is the path which you will embark upon, because as men you can do no other.
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