Why famiLEE LEEgime now Suck Harder for Burmese Junta?

Singapore urges Myanmar to cooperate with world
3 hours ago
SINGAPORE (AFP) — Singapore has urged Myanmar's ruling generals to take "bolder steps" to promote national reconciliation and work with the international community amid fresh reports of arrests in Yangon.
Speaking at a dinner in honour of visiting Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein late Tuesday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called the diplomatically isolated nation "an old friend" of Singapore that should "develop and prosper."
"The global environment is changing, with a new administration in the US reviewing the global situation, and formulating its priorities and strategies in foreign policy for the next four years," he said.
Europe is also reassessing its foreign policy and other countries grappling with the global economic slump are looking at more effective ways to deal with other regions of the world, he said.
"We hope Myanmar will seize this moment to take bolder steps towards national reconciliation and in engaging the international community," Lee said.
The two countries are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which also includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
Lee said there was potential to develop economic cooperation, particularly in tourism, and urged both nations to enhance cultural ties.
Despite western sanctions, Singaporean firms operate in Myanmar, and junta officials, including reclusive leader General Than Shwe, are believed to have sought medical treatment in the island republic.
In a symbolic ceremony, Singapore on Wednesday named an orchid after Thein Sein, angering a small group of Singaporean human rights activists.
Visiting foreign dignitaries are routinely brought to the National Orchid Garden for a flower-naming ceremony.
But the activists said the Myanmar premier did not deserve to have the yellowish-brown orchid named "Dendrobium Thein Sein" because of his government's poor human rights record.
They said it was "more befitting" to name the flower after opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Past recipients of the Singapore floral tribute include anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.
Thein Sein, who holds the rank of general in the Myanmar military, arrived in Singapore on Tuesday for a two-day visit. He had earlier visited Indonesia.
His trip came as the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi reported the arrest of five members and the United Nations chastised Myanmar's rulers for their treatment of dissidents.
Four men and a woman who worked as organisers for the party were arrested last week in the commercial hub and former capital Yangon, said NLD spokesman Nyan Win.
A report on Monday by the top UN official handling human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, said many of the more than 2,100 political prisoners held in Myanmar have been sentenced in flawed, closed-door hearings.
Detainees suffered from a lack of medical care during imprisonment and from "physical ill-treatment" during interrogation, said Quintana, who visited Myanmar from February 14 to 19 in his capacity as a UN special rapporteur.
During the ASEAN summit in Thailand earlier this month, Myanmar embarrassed the hosts and the 10-nation organisation by threatening to boycott a meeting with human rights advocates if a Myanmar activist was present.
The activist was not allowed into the session.


Singapore urges Myanmar to look West

SINGAPORE, March 18 (Reuters) - Singapore has urged Myanmar's military rulers to re-establish relations with the West, whose sanctions have repeatedly failed to force the oppressive regime to free political prisoners and bring democracy to the country. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told his Myanmar counterpart Thein Sein on Tuesday the city-state would "do what we can" to help the junta revive ties with the United States and Europe. "Countries are grappling with the financial crisis, and asking themselves what is the most effective way to conduct their affairs with other regions," said Lee, whose People's Action Party has governed Singapore since independence in 1965. "We hope Myanmar will seize this moment to take bolder steps towards national reconciliation and in engaging the international community," he said in a dinner reception speech. Lee's remarks came as a U.N. investigator called on the junta to release more than 2,100 political prisoners and allow them to take part in an election set for 2010. Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, also urged the military to halt its use of civilians in forced labour. [NLH943136] The junta, which has ruled the former Burma since 1962, has refused to recognise a 1990 landslide election victory of the opposition National League for Democracy. Its leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for most of the past two decades. Western governments have criticised the poll as a sham aimed at entrenching military rule. WEALTH MANAGEMENT Washington, whose sanctions on Myanmar include freezing assets of the ruling generals, wants the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes Singapore, to press for reform and political progress in Myanmar. But Singapore, a strong U.S. ally and a growing centre for wealth management, has opposed sanctions on Myanmar and is believed to be home to the generals' offshore bank accounts. Lee said resource-scarce Singapore would continue to develop business opportunities in resource-rich Myanmar, urging the junta to provide a "stable environment for businessmen to operate in, and take concrete steps to remove barriers and bureaucratic hassles". Critics say the junta has turned the "Rice Bowl of Asia" into one of Asia's poorest nations, but the regime says it is pursuing its own seven-step "roadmap" to democracy and shrugs off calls for reform. On Wednesday, Singapore's state-run Botanic Gardens hosted an "Orchid Naming Ceremony" for Thein Sein, the number four in the junta's hierarchy, a ceremony that the government traditionally conducts to honour visiting dignitaries. Three Singaporeans at the gardens tried to present a bouquet of orchids to Thein Sein to give to Suu Kyi, and called for her release. Protests are rare in Singapore and gatherings of five or more people are illegal without a police permit. "We feel it would be more fitting for the orchid flower to be honoured in the name of Miss Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the rightful leader of Burma," the protestors said in a statement. (Additional reporting by Kash Cheong; Editing by Neil Chatterjee and Bill Tarrant)



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