• by Erik Solheim
• Tuesday, June 30, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Since a military junta seized control of Burma in 1988, the West's response has been to isolate it. The regime has refused to implement political and economic reforms. It's time for us to change our approach, writes Erik Solheim, Norwegian Minister of the Environment and International Development.

In this analysis, the author writes that if a country is isolated from the rest of the world, no middle class will emerge, and it is the middle class that has the resources to become politically engaged in promoting freedom of expression and other social progress, not the poor, whose hands are full trying to keep their children from going hungry.

If Burma's military leaders are given more opportunity to travel abroad, they will be more likely to say as Mikhail Gorbachev once did: "We cannot live like this any longer." Burma is facing major challenges because of the financial crisis. The military regime is planning elections, which are certain to be neither free nor fair. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is still under strict house arrest. There is little hope of any democratic breakthrough in the near future. We must take a longer, historical perspective; openness and dialogue are bound to be more effective than isolation.

(*) Erik Solheim is Norwegian Minister of the Environment and International Development.

//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM//

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

Where next?

Advertisement