By WAI MOE Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has urged Japan to strengthen Burma’s democratic institutions as Tokyo launches a fresh engagement initiative with Naypyidaw that promises more investment for economic and social development.
“If democratic institutions are strengthened in the country, economic development will be stronger too,” Suu Kyi told reporters at a press briefing after she met Japanese Foreign Minister Kocihiro Gemba at her lakeside house in Rangoon on Monday evening.
“Therefore, I hope Japan will consider strengthening democratic institutions in the country while it aids humanitarian works as well as social and economic development,” she added.
Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba, left, at a press briefing in Rangoon with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (Photo: AP)
The Nobel Laureate also emphasized the importance of national reconciliation, resolving civil wars and maintaining peace for the development of democracy in the country. And she added that humanitarian aid and development should reach all ethnic minority areas equally.
Gemba held a meeting with President ex-Gen Thein Sein in Naypyidaw and Suu Kyi in Rangoon, indicating that the East Asian superpower is looking for investment opportunities in Burma.
He said that Japan wants to help Burma fight poverty and that the two nations agreed to discuss a treaty to protect Japanese investments in the country.
Apart from investment and help combating poverty, Japan will also provide aid for Burma’s health, education and agriculture sectors, claimed Gemba.
Gemba also met his Burmese counterpart Wunna Maung Lwin in Naypyidaw on Monday before flying to Rangoon.
“This visit will be a big turning point for Japan-Burma relations,” Gemba was quoted by Kyodo News Agency as telling Wunna Maung Lwin.
On the meetings between Thein Sein and Gemba, state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported: “They cordially discussed matters related to bilateral multi-faceted cooperation, including strengthening of bilateral friendly ties, bilateral economic cooperation, seeking of ways and means to render assistance by Japan, encouragement and assistance for Myanmar’s democratization, national reconciliation and bilateral culture exchanges.”
Gemda is the first Japanese foreign minister to visit Burma since 2002. His visit came after a Japanese delegation, led by Kimihiro Ishikane, deputy director-general of the Japan Foreign Ministry’s Southeast & Southwest Affairs on Official Development Assistance (ODA), last month.
Both sides talked about the new Naypyidaw government's development policies and Japan’s assistance programs through ODA for sustainable economic development in Burma, according to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Although Japan is keen to invest in Burma and cooperate with the Burmese government to achieve development, Burma’s tentative moves towards democratization and protecting human rights have also been significant in Tokyo's policy of providing assistance.
“Japan believes that it is important for Myanmar, having just recently shifted to civilian rule, to become a democratic nation based on a market economy and social stability,” said a statement from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Nov. 28.
“Therefore, Japan intends to implement economic cooperation while watching for improvements in democratization and human rights situations.”
Burma is one of the areas in which Japan has used “ODA diplomacy” effectively. From 1960 to 1988, Japan was the main contributor of development aid to the Southeast Asian nation—a value totaling US $2.1 billion including compensation for the Japanese occupation during World War II.
However, Japan stopped ODA to Burma in 1988 in reaction to the military junta's coup and brutal crackdown on the democracy uprising. But Japan still assisted Burma in less direct methods—such as loans for Rangoon International Airport and the Baluchaung Hydropower project in Karenni State.
From 1991 to 2003, Japanese aid to Burma totaled over 900 billion yen and was closely aligned to democratic reforms.
Tokyo decided to approve the airport loan following Suu Kyi's release from her first house arrest in 1995, and the hydropower project aid was offered after her subsequent release from house arrest in 2002.
Japan once again suspended ODA to Burma in July 2003 after Suu Kyi and her convoy were brutally ambushed by pro-junta thugs in Dapayin, Sagaing Division, in northern Burma.
But using ODA diplomacy to engage with the Burmese regime was perhaps also a counterbalancing act against China’s influence in the country. Japan’s ODA to Burma was 876 million yen in 2004, 1.2 billion yen in 2005, 640 million yen in 2006 ad 468 million yen in 2007.
Following the killing by security forces of Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai in Rangoon while he was covering the monk-led mass democracy protests in September 2007, Tokyo also temporarily suspended aid to Burma.
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