By Harvey Mackay
My bride Carol Ann and I recently visited Burma, as the U.S. government knows it, or Myanmar, as others now call it. Our trip was organized by the Chief Executives Organization, of which I've been a member for 25 years. The assemblage included CEOs and their spouses from Australia to Italy.
Burma is not a third-world nation; it's a 4th world nation. It's where scalpels are sterilized in rice cookers . . . if you're lucky. Sandwiched between India and China, both its neighbors have bigger eyes for Burma's natural resources than for Burmese human rights.
In 1948, Burma was the crown jewel of British colonial Asia and had it all. Jewel is no metaphor. This land was and is still knee-deep in sapphires, jade and rubies—almost 90 percent of the world's harvest, especially the prized pigeon's blood rubies. It also has oil. And it has great potential for rice from a delta with perhaps the most fertile land in the world.
Burma was a World War II frontline. This former British colony achieved independence in 1948 but hobbled along thereafter. A military coup quashed democracy in 1962. Thousands died in a bloody uprising in 1988. In 1990, the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won more than 80 percent of the seats in parliament.
The remarkable Suu Kyi humiliated the generals, who were only able to capture 2 percent of the seats. They refused to recognize a "mere" woman's claim to govern. Winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, she now endures a cumulative 12th year of house arrest.
Suu Kyi has a vision, but the power barons are doing their best to make sure she doesn't share it. I talked with more than 50 people—from entrepreneurs to educators to workers, but not one could tell me where the country was headed.
"The Lady"—as the Burmese refer to Suu Kyi—is a person of formidable wisdom. "The viewpoint of the privileged is unlike that of the underprivileged," she maintains. And the underprivileged are legion in Burma. While this country with a population of 55 million fields the world's 12th largest standing military, its per person income is 150th.
What did our group see?
Pagodas by the gazillion—among the most stunning you can imagine.
Throngs of people in the Inle Lake area of Shan State live in houses on stilts in valleys where waterways dominate transportation. Venice may have its gondoliers, but Burma has its Intha boatmen who wrap one leg around an oar to paddle.
Above all, we saw and spoke with many wonderful people.
One forum was unforgettable for me, and it was standing room only for some of the 125 students I had the privilege to address. Starved for knowledge from the outside world, their questions about the U.S. presence in Iraq were grad-school level. Impossible to email, the knowledge-starved students still tap into the Internet in the middle of the night.
Everywhere we went they loved the United States.
What didn't we see on our trip?
Not a single American tourist.
Nor did we see the capital. In the spirit of Suu Kyi, Buddhist monks waged a passive-resistance uprising last fall and were cruelly crushed. The military yanked the capital from Yangon (Rangoon) and moved it to a desolate boondocks 200 miles away. Future protesters, including government workers, would have to shuffle into jungle 200-miles deep.
Nor did we see the travesty of Burma at work. Forced labor, child labor and human trafficking remain commonplace. The government is despotic, repressive and provides no services for the people, whom it attacks regularly.
Nor did we see the illicit drug factories. A corner of the Golden Triangle with Thailand and Laos, Burma is ablossom with poppies—a source rivaled only by Afghanistan. Sanctions have helped drive out legitimate business.
At the U.S. ambassador's home, my colleagues and I heard a speech that to me was not too convincing touting U.S. sanctions against Burma. Consider the opportunity. One unexpected benefit of the stalled economic growth: Dense forests cover much of the country. Could you find a better setting for ecotourism?
Some of my CEO colleagues and I believe sanctions are a policy gone bust. The Burmese love America. Little groups like ours lift the hopes of a people dreaming of the day they can rejoin the Free World.
Mackay's Moral: Unwise sanctions can undercut a forest of opportunity.
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