Lee touts Noble peace laureate’s fight for democracy, reform



YANGON -- President Lee Myung-bak on Tuesday met Myanmar’s iconic opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the country’s old capital of Yangon to show appreciation for her decades-long fight for democracy and ask for her support in strengthening bilateral ties.

As a leader of a vibrant democracy which also suffered from decades of military rule, Lee stressed that South Korea will join the international community to support Myanmar’s efforts for reform, democratization and improved human rights.

For a two-day visit, Lee on Monday arrived in Naypyitaw, the remote city to which the capital was moved from Yangon in 2005. In the morning, he flew to Yangon for talks with Suu Kyi and South Korean businesspeople operating here.

Presidential security was tighter than ever compared with his past overseas trips as South Korea still smarts from North Korea’s bombing in Yangon in 1983 that killed 17 Seoul officials accompanying then President Chun Doo-hwan.

Lee’s visit was aimed at improving ties with the resource-rich country as its fledgling reforms widen access to its huge natural resources, market potential and geopolitical position.

Suu Kyi is the key driver of the country’s reform, which the U.S., the EU and others have rewarded by relaxing or lifting their long-standing economic sanctions that have crippled Myanmar’s economy since the 1990s.

Suu Kyi entered parliament after her National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory in the April 1 by-elections.

The opposition party secured 43 of the 44 seats it contested in the landmark polls to carve out a presence in the country’s 664-member bicameral legislature still dominated by the military figures.

The electoral win added momentum to ongoing political and economic reforms in the underdeveloped country and helped contain lingering skepticism about the nominally civilian government’s will for democratization.

Suu Kyi’s party won an overwhelming victory in the 1990 elections as well with more than 80 percent of voter support. But the military refused to cede power and instead strengthened crackdowns on dissidents.

Since her release in November 2010 after spending 15 years under house arrest since 1989, she has gotten closer to the grassroots people that have suffered from impoverishment and social, political oppression.

The daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero Gen. Aung San, she began spearheading the democracy movement weeks after the military’s bloody crackdown on massive pro-democracy rallies in 1988.

After spending some three decades living outside the country as a scholar and wife of her British husband, Michael Aris, the iconic leader returned to Myanmar in 1988 to help her mother recover from a stroke.

Amid popular calls for democratic rule, people in the country wanted her to play an active leadership role. As she increasingly raised her voice against dictatorship and human rights abuses, the military rulers put her under house arrest in July 1989.

Her confinement made her unable to travel to Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. Her husband and son attended the award ceremony on her behalf.

Suu Kyi could not visit her ailing husband before he died in Britain of prostate cancer in 1999. When she was intermittently freed, Suu Kyi refused to go abroad, thinking that she might not be allowed to return home.

With her persistent calls for broad, fundamental reform and national reconciliation, the incumbent government led by Thein Sein, a former military general, has made strides toward democratic rule.

It has freed hundreds of political prisoners, eased media control, reached truces with ethnic rebels and held the by-elections that enabled Suu Kyi to enter parliament.

Also in a bold step toward economic reform, the country adopted a managed floating exchange rate system last month as its previous fixed mechanism had caused market distortions and dampened investor confidence.

The reform efforts have triggered competition among many countries over Myanmar’s vast reserves of oil, natural gas and other resources. Global powers including China have vied to court the country particularly for its geostrategic location next to the Indian Ocean and crucial sea lanes of communication.

After studying political science from Lady Shri Ram College in India 1964, she flew to Britain to attend Oxford University. She earned her doctorate at Britain’s School of Oriental and African Studies in 1985.

Meanwhile, President Lee and his Myanmarese counterpart Thein Sein agreed to release a North Korean defector held in the country soon during their talks on Monday, said Kim Tae-hyo, senior presidential secretary for national security and strategy.

The defector, whose identity was withheld, has served his five-year prison term here for illegal entry into the country since March 2010.

Most defectors from the repressive state have made their way into South Korea after crossing the border into China and moving into a third country such as Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

The two leaders also discussed Myanmar’s alleged military cooperation with Pyongyang.

Thein Sein said that his country has never cooperated with North Korea in terms of nuclear programs, and that Myanmar will abide by the U.N. Security Council resolution 1874 banning Pyongyang’s long-range rocket launch.

Lee also pledged to increase South Korea’s level of assistance to Myanmar and share South Korea’s development experience. The leaders also agreed to expand bilateral cooperation in energy, resource development and construction of infrastructure.

To deepen the countries’ friendship, the leaders agreed to increase people-to-people exchanges and cooperation in areas of sports and culture.

By Song Sang-ho
Korea Herald correspondent
(sshluck@heraldcorp.com)