Daw Aung San Suu Kyi warns of employment ‘time bomb’ in Myanmar

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi urged foreign companies on Friday to invest cautiously in fast-changing Myanmar and give priority to creating jobs as much as making profits in order to defuse the “time bomb” that is the country’s high unemployment rate.


Speaking during her first trip outside her country in 24 years, the leader of the fight against dictatorship in the former Burma warned against “reckless optimism” about Myanmar’s rapid reforms.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, 66, said Myanmar faced a crisis due to the number of people without work and urged foreign companies to provide jobs and training. Their investments should not fuel corruption or line the pockets only of the business elite.

“The proportion of young people unemployed in Burma is extremely high. That is a time bomb,” she said in a speech to the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Bangkok.

“Please don’t think about how much benefit will come to those who are investing. I understand investors invest because they hope to profit from ventures – I agree with that – but our country must benefit as much as those who invest.

“I want this commitment to mean quite simply jobs – as many jobs as possible.”
Millions of people in Myanmar have been forced abroad, many to Thailand, because of the chronic lack of employment.

Western Sanctions have prevented foreign companies from investing in the country of 60m people.
Most of the sanctions have been suspended in recent months in response to reforms by the quasi-civilian government that took office just over a year ago.

Ms Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under house arrest under the former junta, said the government was pushing through democratic, social and economic reforms but did not seem interested in overhauling a judiciary that lacked independence.

“Would-be investors in Burma please be warned: even the best investment law will be of no use whatsoever if there are no courts clean or independent enough to be able to administer those laws justly,” she said.

“So far, we’re not aware of any reforms on the judicial front ... Not many in the government seem to agree with this,” she said. “I consider the need to be very urgent indeed.”

On a lighter note, Ms Suu Kyi said she was dazzled by Bangkok, a glitzy contrast to Yangon and other big towns in Myanmar, where chronic power cuts sparked protests last week.

“I was completely fascinated by the lights,” she said.
“What went through my mind, is: ‘we need an energy policy’.”


Reuters

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi demands "urgent" legal reform in Myanmar

Democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday urged Myanmar's government to carry out urgent judicial reform to cement recent political progress and foster clean investment in the country.

Addressing world business leaders in Bangkok in her first international engagement after more than two decades of isolation, Ms Suu Kyi said Myanmar needed the "rule of law" more than legal safeguards for foreign investors.

"Investors in Burma, please be warned -- even the best investment law would be of no use whatsoever if there is no court clean enough and independent enough to be able to administer these laws justly," she said.

"Good laws already exist in Burma but we do not have a clean and independent judicial system. Unless we have such a system it is no use having the best laws in the world."

Companies are hungrily eyeing resource-rich Myanmar since political reforms prompted some international sanctions to be eased.

But in her 15 minute address to the World Economic Forum on East Asia, Ms Suu Kyi seized the chance to call for an ethical approach from the assembled foreign business chiefs and Asian political leaders.

Calling for a "healthy scepticism" towards Myanmar's creeping reform under the quasi-civilian government, she decried a lack of change to the country's broken legal system and asked delegates to think "deeply" about what is good for Myanmar.

"For a moment please don't think too much of the benefit investment will bring to investors.

"We don't want investment to mean further further corruption.. and greater inequality."

Instead she said it was integral to empower civic society and create jobs to defuse a "timebomb" of high youth unemployment.

Ms Suu Kyi has stolen the show at the Bangkok forum , drawing crowds of well-wishers and photographers, during her first trip abroad in 24 years.

Having spent 15 of the past 22 years under house arrest, she has taken an increasingly global role as Myanmar sheds its pariah status, meeting top world dignitaries in Yangon and encouraging easing of Western economic sanctions.

Analysts say that foreign travel will give Ms Suu Kyi greater access to a global community eager to see her in person and allow her to meet ordinary people as well as world leaders.

Reflecting on her trip after decades inside Myanmar, the pro-democracy leader said as she flew into Bangkok she was struck by the city's illuminated nightscape.

"I had just left a Burma that was suffering electricity cuts... I thought thirty years ago the scene that met my eyes landing in Bangkok, would not have been very different from landing in Yangon."

After Friday's speech she will attend a forum session on Asian women.

Since arriving in neighbouring Thailand on Tuesday, the pro-democracy icon has followed a hectic schedule, shuttling between forum meetings and trips to visit Myanmar migrants.

Europe is next on the horizon, where Ms Suu Kyi will address an International Labour Organization conference in Geneva and give a speech in Oslo to finally accept the Nobel Prize she was awarded in 1991.

She also intends to travel to Britain, where she lived for years with her family, and will address parliament in London.


AFP

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi steals the show at World Ecinomic Forum, Bangkok 2012

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s celebrity status made her the center attraction at Thursday’s opening of the World Economic Forum, where the Myanmar opposition leader signed autographs and smiled politely for pictures with delegates from around the world.

Diplomats and businessmen in dark suits jostled to get in close, holding their iPhones and BlackBerry’s aloft to get a picture of Ms Suu Kyi, who is on her first trip outside of Myanmar in 24 years.


Poised and elegant in purple silk, Suu Kyi’s presence in the front row prompted speakers to pay tribute.

“It’s a full house,” said Surin Pitsuwan, the secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. “I don’t know — can we panelists can claim credit for that? Or is it because of The Lady?”

Many in Myanmar refer to Ms Suu Kyi as “The Lady” in a gesture of respect but also because for years it was considered dangerous to utter her name aloud. The country’s former military rulers were so afraid of Ms Suu Kyi’s popularity that they locked her under house arrest for 15 out of 22 years, during which time she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

Ms Suu Kyi was granted freedom after Myanmar, also known as Burma, held elections in 2010. Since then, President Thein Sein has surprised much of the world by engineering sweeping reforms, including holding a by-election in April in which Suu Kyi won a seat in Parliament.

For her first outing on foreign soil, Ms Suu Kyi on Wednesday visited downtrodden Burmese migrant workers living outside Bangkok. She told them she would do all she could to reverse decades of economic ruin and make it possible for them to go home.

She planned a second trip to the area Thursday afternoon, after leaving the conference, where she spent the morning listening intently at sessions on the global economy, Asian geopolitics and China’s role in the region.

Escorted through hallways by a ring of security guards, she did not speak to the media. Nor did she raise her hand when panelists asked for questions — even when the topic turned to Myanmar.
“It feels a bit presumptuous to talk about Burma in front of Daw Suu,” said U.S. Senator Susan Collins, who met with Thein Sein and other senior officials during a two-day trip this week to Myanmar. Daw is a term of respect in Myanmar.

The U.S. recently eased sanctions it imposed on Myanmar during the military’s regime but has said more reforms are needed before the sanctions can be lifted.

“My impression is that Burma is on a tipping point. I’m cautiously optimistic Burma will go in the right direction,” Collins said. “We look forward to further advice and council from Daw Suu.”

AP

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi tells Myanmar migrants she will "try my best"

Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday told an ecstatic crowd of Myanmar migrants in Thailand she would do all she could to help them, on the first stop of her first trip abroad in 24 years.

"I can give you one promise -- I will try my best for you," Suu Kyi told a crowd of hundreds who packed a narrow street in Samut Sakhon province south of Bangkok to see the opposition leader, who had not left her homeland since 1988.

Suu Kyi praised the strong "spirit" of workers from Myanmar, also known as Burma, "in spite of the many troubles they have been through" in comments to journalists.

"All of them say one thing -- they want to go back to Burma as soon as possible. That of course is part of our responsibility," she said, adding that her visit to Mahachai was like being "back in Yangon".

Cheering Myanmar migrants held up banners with Suu Kyi's picture and signs in Burmese and English that read "Free Burma" and "We want to go home".

"I am very happy and I want to cry. I feel that we will get democracy in Myanmar," said Phyu, who has been in Thailand for six years.

Suu Kyi's foray beyond Myanmar's borders is a significant show of confidence in dramatic changes that have swept her homeland since a near 50-year military government was replaced with a quasi-civilian regime last year.

The former political prisoner, who won a seat in parliament in historic April by-elections, is expected to meet Thailand's prime minister and attend the World Economic Forum on East Asia during several days in the country.

Her decision to begin the trip by meeting some of the hundreds of thousands of Myanmar migrants who work in low paid jobs in Thai homes, factories and fishing boats, shines a spotlight on a group that has long been marginalised and prone to exploitation.

Thailand's workforce is heavily reliant on low-cost foreign workers, both legal and trafficked, with Myanmar nationals accounting for around 80 percent of the two million registered migrants in the kingdom. There may be a further one million undocumented foreign workers.

"Most of the workers here want to go back home, but we can't afford that. There are no jobs back there and it's difficult to eat, difficult to live," said Aung Htun, 28, a rice mill worker.

Suu Kyi met several migrant workers as part of her visit, hearing stories that conveyed a range of experiences and promised to discuss the issues with the Thai authorities.

Pavin Chachavalpongpun, of the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at Japan's Kyoto University, said the veteran activist was looking to "reconnect her lost connection with those who live outside the country".

"There are a lot of Burmese exiles in Thailand, Burmese dissidents and immigrant workers, that is why she chose to go there," he said.

Suu Kyi's ventures overseas, which also include a European tour in June, are seen as the completion of her transformation from prisoner to global politician.

The 66-year-old, who spent 15 of the past 22 years under house arrest, refused to travel abroad in the past even when the former military government denied her dying husband a visa to visit her, because of fears she would never be allowed to return.

Suu Kyi also said she would meet refugees in northern Thailand, where roughly 100,000 people live in camps after being displaced by ethnic conflict in Myanmar's eastern border areas.

She is scheduled to speak at an open discussion with World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab and appear on Friday at a session on the role of Asian women.

Suu Kyi's European travel plans include an address to an International Labour Organization conference in Geneva on June 14.

After that she will make a speech in Oslo on June 16 to finally accept the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded in 1991 for her peaceful struggle for democracy.

She also intends to travel to Britain, where she lived for years with her family, and will address parliament in London on June 21.

Myanmar President Thein Sein, who is credited with a string of reforms that have prompted the international community to ease sanctions, has postponed an official visit to Thailand which would have clashed with Suu Kyi's trip.

He will now travel to the country on June 4 and 5, according to the Thai foreign ministry. AFP

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi arrives in Thailand for first trip abroad in 24 years

Myanmar democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi arrived in Thailand on Tuesday for her first trip abroad in more than two decades, ending an era of isolation and cementing her arrival on the global stage.

The former political prisoner, who won a seat in parliament in historic April by-elections, is expected to meet the Thai prime minister, attend the World Economic Forum on East Asia and meet Myanmar communities during several days in the country.

Ms Suu Kyi, who last left the nation in 1988 when it was still under outright military rule, landed in the Thai capital around 10:00 pm (1500 GMT) after the short flight from Yangon. She was greeted at the airport by journalists and around two dozen of her compatriots who chanted "Mother Suu", eliciting smiles and a wave from the democracy champion, before she was whisked away by car. Speaking to AFP before her departure from Yangon, Suu Kyi said she planned to stay in Thailand "for four or five days" adding she would visit "one refugee camp" without providing further details.

Suu Kyi, who spent 15 of the past 22 years under house arrest, will emerge into a world transformed - the skyscrapers and frenetic activity of Bangkok presenting a stark contrast to her home city of Yangon, with its crumbling architecture and frequent power outages. The Nobel laureate's first trip outside Myanmar since 1988 comes as dramatic changes sweep the country, after decades of outright military rule ended last year.

Suu Kyi, fearful that she would never be allowed to return, had refused to travel abroad in the past, even when the former junta denied her dying husband a visa to visit her from Britain. Pavin Chachavalpongpun, of the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies in Japan's Kyoto University, said the visit signals "she is very confident in her position, confident with the ongoing reconciliation and political reforms".

The trip will "convey a message" from the Myanmar government that its reforms, which have caused unprecedented thawing of relations with the international community and easing of tough sanctions, are sustainable. "Before the sanctions can be removed, the government have to earn legitimacy big time, so that is what they want from Suu Kyi's trip," he told AFP. The 66-year-old icon will meet Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra during her trip, but the timing has yet to be confirmed, the premier's secretary general Thawat Boonfeung told AFP.
 Suu Kyi is also set to visit Myanmar migrant workers in Samut Sakhon province, south of Bangkok, on Wednesday, according to local activists. Thailand's workforce is heavily reliant on low-cost foreign workers, both legal and trafficked, with Myanmar nationals accounting for around 80 percent of the two million registered foreign workers in the kingdom. Suu Kyi is then expected to travel to the north of the country to meet some of the roughly 100,000 refugees displaced by conflict in Myanmar's eastern border areas.

 She is scheduled to speak in an open discussion with World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab and appear at a session on the role of Asian women on Friday. "This is a hugely symbolic but also substantive visit because it is going to mark the beginning of Aung San Suu Kyi as an international stateswoman," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, of Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. Suu Kyi's European travel plans include an address to an International Labour Organisation conference in Geneva on June 14.

After that she will make a speech in Oslo on June 16 to finally accept the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded in 1991 for her peaceful struggle for democracy. She also intends to travel to Britain, where she lived for years with her family, and will address parliament in London on June 21. The democracy campaigner was on Tuesday invited to visit India during a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Yangon, ahead of her trip, and said she hoped to go there soon.

Myanmar President Thein Sein, who is credited with a string of reforms that have prompted the international community to ease sanctions, has postponed his official visit to Thailand, which would have clashed with Suu Kyi's trip. "She is a rock star in international politics so she will inevitably, I think by circumstance more than by design, overshadow everybody, she will steal the show," said Thitinan. Thein Sein will now travel to Thailand on June 4 and 5, according to the Thai foreign ministry.

AFP