Regime in olive branch mood-(she is wishing us so good wishes to Su Ki and Mayammar from us...VT)-25/8/11

Regime in olive branch mood

A few photographs and a couple of sketchy statements are all that we have about a meeting between Myanmar's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein. State-run television said both parties put aside their differences and “discussed common interests and areas of potential cooperation for the benefit of the state and the people.” Ms Suu Kyi reportedly said she was “happy and satisfied” with the meeting. A day after the meeting, the Nobel laureate travelled to Naypitaw — the new capital the junta raised a few years ago in the middle of a jungle — to attend a government workshop on economic development, where she met Ministers and other ruling party luminaries. There are indications that the government, run by the nominally civilian proxies of the erstwhile junta, wants to be seen as offering an olive branch to its chief adversary. In turn, perhaps influenced by the great example of Nelson Mandela, Ms Suu Kyi has been conciliatory without compromising her cause. In one of her first statements, after release from nearly two decades of house arrest in November 2010, she expressed a desire to open a dialogue with the generals of Myanmar. The military greeted this first with stony silence and later warned her against involvement in political activity.

In recent weeks, the regime has shown signs of loosening up. Ms Suu Kyi has been able to make an unobstructed trip out of Yangon to the countryside, receiving a warm welcome from people. She also released “open letters,” asserting her views on two important political issues: the big dams being constructed on the Irrawaddy and the problems these are causing to the ethnic groups in those areas; and the need for the government to declare a ceasefire with armed ethnic rebels and reach out to them through dialogue. The government has responded by expressing its readiness to hold peace talks with the rebels. Most recently, the President told parliament that he was trying to “ease tensions” with opposition groups that had not accepted the 2008 Constitution — a clear reference to Ms Suu Kyi and her National League of Democracy. The regime may have calculated that reaching out to the democracy icon could help ease economic sanctions by western countries. For her part, Ms Suu Kyi may be considering the opportunities the situation presents to force concessions from the regime. Over 2,000 activists of the NLD remain under arrest, and the party itself was derecognised before this year's election. The people of India are with this brave woman in a cause for which she has sacrificed so much — a genuinely democratic Myanmar that can take its place in the comity of nations.