Myanmar is an ASEAN country neighboring the two great
powers of Asia, China and India. The parliament of Myanmar is being dominated
by two political parties, National
League for Democracy (NLD) led by the State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi and Union
Solidarity and Development Party (USDP)
handled by former and current military officials. The best suitable to word to
describe the foreign policy of Myanmar either domestic or foreign is “balance”.
Being a small country with neither economic and military power, it’s not a
choice for Myanmar to be dependable upon other countries but those bilateral
relations are usually the ones that define the continuity or change of Myanmar
politics.
The foreign policy of Obama administration has a great
impact on the democratic transition of Myanmar from its military regime which
had continued for nearly a half of century. In late 2000s, the military
government of Myanmar finally came to conclusion that “Burmese way to
Socialism” was not in decent condition as they have hoped for. Due to nearly
three decades of economic sanctions by the western countries (led by U.S), the
country has been in great national debt and the agricultural economy of Myanmar
has no way to overcome the exploitation of China (e.g. Myitsone Dam conflict).
The military government of Myanmar has realized that the only way to reduce its
overdependence upon China could only be possible with the involvement of the
western powers and thus began the government reforms, “seven steps of road map to
democracy”, which led to the first democratic 2010 general election of Myanmar.
The willingness of Myanmar to reengage
in the international community has played into favor of the “Pivot to East
Asia" regional strategy of Obama. During the visit of U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton to the country, she stated that Myanmar’s democratization reflects “the
unique role the United States can and should play in the world as a champion of
dignity and democracy” and It is “America at our best.” The U.S and Myanmar
pursued to take steps toward the restoration of full diplomatic relations which
significantly involved modifying or lifting sanctions in support of
Myanmar’s “triple transition”: moving from dictatorship to democracy, from a
planned economy to a market economy, and from civil wars to peace. In 2015 general election, Aung San
Suu Kyi led NLD party has won the election, leading the country back on the
track.
The newly democratic nation has now
faced a great number of problems which force the transition to turn reverse
rather than forwards. Even though Aung San Suu Kyi has successfully become the
State Councilor, with NLD being the major party, the military still controls
the parliament through 2008 constitution. The amendment of the constitution
would require more than 75% of the legislature in which the representation of military
officials is 25%. Moreover, the civil war is still continuing the northern part
of the country and the Bengali issues in Arakhan state greatly affected the trust
of democratic government of Myanmar by the international community. However, before
the “triple transition” could have finished, pro- American government of Myanmar
has come to received negligence by Trump administration.
It is not possible for Myanmar to
abandon its bilateral relation with China but the involvement of U.S helped in
its strategic balancing process to withdrawn from overdependence of China which
kept the country trapped under military junta for more than a half of century.
Currently, without the influence of U.S, Myanmar has no choice but to lean
towards China and this has continued to hinder the democratic transition.
No comments:
Post a Comment