Washington: As the US moves ahead to implements its new Burma policy of "pragmatic engagement" with the military junta, a panel of independent experts on Thursday asked it to involve China, India and Japan, besides ASEAN countries to press the Burmese government in positive direction.
"(The) US coordination and collaboration with China, India, and Japan should also be reinvigorated, with particular emphasis on good governance and economic reform. Such efforts should include regional training programs for Burmese government officials and other educational programs designed to strengthen Burma`s human capital," said the Asia Society Task Force Report `Current Realities and Future Possibilities in Burma/Myanmar: Options For US Policy`.
Co-chaired by Gen (rtd) Wesley K Clark and Henrietta H Fore, former administrator of the US Agency for International Development; with Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and Thomas Pickering, former US undersecretary of state for political affairs; the report recommends that the US policy toward Burma should emphasise coordination and collaboration with other concerned governments and international institutions, particularly Burma`s Asian neighbours.
"The US should work together with ASEAN countries to underscore the importance of conducting the 2010 elections in a free, fair, inclusive and transparent manner, as outlined in the joint statement from the first ASEAN-US Leaders Summit held in Singapore in November 2009," said the report released at the US Institute of Peace, a Washington-based think tank.
"The United States also should develop collaborative efforts with China, Japan, and India to press the Burmese government in positive directions," it said.
If there are indications of some positive response from the Burmese military junta, the 68-page report recommends that the US should explore the feasibility of forming a support group with Australia, Burma, China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, and Japan, perhaps under the auspices of the United Nations, to provide a mechanism for organising international coordination and assistance for Burma`s transition, both politically and economically.
"Such a group also could marshal other governments and international institutions as appropriate to focus on specific tasks, but its main objective should be to coordinate and demonstrate collective encouragement of reform, good governance, and the protection of human rights," it said.
"To the extent that the United States can develop collaborative efforts with key Asian stakeholders, particularly with regard to economic reform initiatives, it will increase the possibility of achieving progress, because advice and support from these countries, rather than Western governments, are likely to be more welcome by the Burmese leadership," the report said.
As a result of its location between two of Asia`s giants - China and India - Burma is now the focus of a geopolitical contest for influence between the region`s biggest powers, which have economic and strategic interests in the country, the report said.
It said the region`s rising economic power has made Burma a highly attractive source for natural resources and raw materials. This has put the Burmese generals at the centre of windfall hard currency profits. In particular, the large sums of money accruing from
energy projects are being siphoned from the national treasury and channelled into activities that do not promote or contribute to economic development or to the welfare of the vast majority of the country’s population.
The generals and their business cronies have become very rich, while the people have sunk deeper into poverty, it noted.
Observing that US should encourage the international community, especially the United Nations, to press the SPDC to engage in dialogue with the opposition and with non-Burman ethnic minorities before the elections, the report said over the longer term, the UN can provide the essential umbrella for coordinating the efforts of key countries that may be able to influence the course of Burma`s transition.
To this end, the Task Force recommends that the US encourage the United Nations to form a support group - consisting of itself, the European Union, Japan, Australia,
China, India, Indonesia, and Burma - to coordinate efforts to encourage political and economic reform over the coming decade.
"This group might be developed as a subset of the existing Friends of Burma/Myanmar group," the report said.
PTI
