PLAYING TO THE CROWD
FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW:
28 January, 1998
by Bertil Lintner
Is the Burmese military stepping up its pressure on Aung San Suu Kyi and her opposition party, the National League for Democracy? Not according to its official spokesmen, who are telling the world that the junta wants to cooperate with the NLD. But inside Burma, the official tone is radically different. State TV has started lambasting Suu Kyi as an "ogre," a "maggot," and worse.
The message to the Burmese people is clear: Stay away from Suu Kyi, who deserves to be deported, and from the NLD, which is likely to be banned. The junta is doing its utmost to appear reasonable on the international front. It has hired public-relations firms to soften its image in the West, and is sending its suave new foreign minister to regional meetings.
Win Aung, a former ambassador to Britain, Germany and Singapore, replaced Ohn Gyaw as foreign minister in November. At a press conference in Rangoon in early January, Win Aung said: "I hope that friendship and cooperation with the European Union and its members and the United States could be regained as in previous years."
When Suu Kyi told members of her party on December 26 that she wouldn't allow the junta to deport her, the authorities responded with an unusually well-written English-language statement: "We hope the NLD will contribute in a positive and meaningful way to achieve a better, fuller life ... and take a more responsible, constructive attitude to-wards cooperation rather than resorting to whimsical and symbolic gestures designed merely to attract attention and create seasonal sensational headlines."
The. statement said the junta had no plans to deport Suu Kyi or ban the NLD. Sensible? Yes, but the rhetoric meant for international consumption remains a world apart from the vitriol fed to the Burmese public through the military-control-led press and state TV. Inside Burma, Suu Kyi is described as an "axe-handle of the neo--colonialists," "a maggot" and "a treasonous element" who deserves to be deported immediately.
The junta has also taken its intimidation campaign to the streets. Civil servants have been sent on door-to-door missions to ask known NLD activists if they still support Suu Kyi and are still party members. "If residents answer affirmatively, the civil servants intimidate them, warning that the NLD will be outlawed very soon," says a Burmese source with links to the opposition. Between October 16 and December 31 the military shut down 43 NLD offices, according to opposition sources. Says a Western diplomat recently based in Rangoon: "It's obvious that they are trying to isolate Suu Kyi by dismantling her party locally." If they succeed, that could hurt more than any insult.
