Frontline Club tonight

After our workshop at the ‘printspace’, I went to the Frontline Club this evening where there was an interesting discussion about the current situation in Burma after the crackdown by the military. Among the participants were two Burmese: Zoya Phan from the Burma Campaign UK and Thuyein Kyaw-Zaw from the BBC Burmese Service, along with Jonthan Miller from Channel 4 news and Justin Wintle who wrote a book about Aung San Suu Kyi.

It was interesting to note that both Burmese representatives spoke out for the continuation of the sanctions (in fact, they suggested an intensification of the sanctions), while the ‘foreign’ observers were more reserved of the impact and efficacy of such sanctions. There were even suggestions that potentially a policy of engagement with the cruel and malicious regime in Burma could yield better results – at least in the long run.

There was also a thought provoking discussion about Aung San Suu Kyi’s role… While her moral integrity was undisputed, there was debate about her efficiency as the figurehead of democratic change while in prison or house arrest and whether she could not have been more useful to the Burmese people leaving Burma and ‘doing an Arafat’ in exile…

The ‘predictions’ of all panellists was that there were going to be more ‘unrests’ in due course in Burma and that the military would not have full control over the situation for now, at least not of what is going on in Burma under the surface. Miller remarked that it will be interesting to see what will happen on August 8th of next year which will mark the twentieth anniversary of the 1988 uprising in Burma, coinciding with the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing… How will China react if there is a civil uprising on its doorsteps while showcasing its own country to the world?