One Swallow Does Not Make The Summer By Saneitha Nagani The recent defection of a high ranking Burmese

diplomat the Burmese mission in Washington DC makes me ponder over an English proverb, One swallow does not make the summer. The most we can put our hopes on is that, summer will be here soon, how soon no one can tell la mer kya mer as in Burmese - all in good time. In the same vein of thought we can say that, one rat leaving the boat does not mean that the boat is sinking. Usually rats are creatures that will be the first to know whether a boat is sinking or not. Instead of assuming and speculating this or that, we should look at the circumstances in which the rat is leaving the boat. In computing parlance, we should dice a bit more, dig a bit deeper, slice and dice in a number of ways to get the full understanding of why those so-called high ranking Burmese diplomat s at the mission in Washing DC , not just one but two, chose t o defect. Was it the lapse in security at the mission that they can easily defect? Or was it the asylum legislation in the United States itself that has becomes a pull factor for foreign diplomats to seek political asylum? Or still is it because of something like what Nicholas Burns, a former official from the US State Department and spokesperson of the White House under President George W Bush, said in an interview, America with its freedom is such a country that makes people wants to come and stay. Mr Burns also said in the interview that, No one wants to go and live in countries like China (or Russia) . Apart from a handful of the North Koreans who risked their lives to escape from the Kimpossible regime of Kim Jong Il and his man-made hell seeking sanctuary, neither China nor Russia, have problems from people seeking asylum in their countries. As a hypothetical, I wonder whether those two high-ranking Burmese diplomats who defected in the United States might also defected if they were posted in China, Russia or any other countries that have ne democratic forms of governments? Only when they are in the United States that out of the blues they found their conscience and walked out on the regime, joined the democratic movement and want to live in the land of the free. I doubted that they might even think of defecting, let alone doing, even if they were posted in the largest democratic country such as India. I am thankful that I have the opportunity to study about China when I was in the junior rank. The one thing that I have learnt from studying China was that to understand the political system as a whole one needs to study the personalities and characters of the influential people in the system. Only then one can make out what was the thinking behind their actions. I have also read somewhere that Henry Kissingers style of foreign policy has been all about mastering contingency. According to him, any account of politics and government would be shallow and self-defeating if we believe in what people say or do at their face value alone. Well have to master the contingency that is confronting us now. Those Burmese diplomats - one a career diplomat with thirty-five years of service in foreign affairs and the other a former military intelligence officer who had a helicopter promotion not only landing him in the Foreign Office but also getting him an assignment considered to be number one in the Foreign Office. These were people of whom most Sinologists would have dubbed them in the whatevertism category of the factions in Chinese politics. They have this mindless obedience who would not hesitate to obey when orders are given from on high, like Senior General Than Shwe or General Khin Nyunt. The former high ranking military intelligence officer and diplomat admitted that part of his work at the embassy in Washington DC was to buy Chinese martial arts DVDs for Senior General Than Shwe and send them to Burma by the diplomatic bag. However, I dont think that the impress money of US 80,000 dollars that he allegedly returned to one of the staff at the embassy when he left was not for just buying DVDs. In my opinion, (and also after looking at the claims in their letters to the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice then and now Mrs Hillary Clinton)they were just like rats in a sinking ship, saving their own shin. Their main interests are self preservation. They have change sides not to serve the people of Burma in their struggle against the brutal military regime or to support them in their quest for a democratic change.

One was at the end of his assignment, which normally is three years (according to my sources he already received his orders to return home and he was very upset when his request to leave his son in the United States without the benefit of diplomatic privileges was turned down by the new minister).The other sought sanctuary in the US when his wife, under suspicious circumstances was issued a writ to appear in the courts in Rangoon in regard to family business matters. During that time the military regime was carrying out a comprehensive purge of all the military intelligence officers who served under General Khin Nyunt. Though cloaked in the mystery of a writ, it must have been obvious to the former military intelligence officer incarnate the high ranking diplomat that he realised that it was time to save his own skin. Thereby, he defected in March 2005. The political situation in Burma, with its gross violation of human rights, crimes against humanity and war crimes in regions where ethnic minorities lived has also been a growth industry for the so-called Burma experts, lobby groups, Public Relations firms, NGOs and so on. The United Nations and the Secretary-General with the appointment of a number of special envoys for Burma could not be cleansed of the dirt they have contracted for wading in the murky waters of Burmese politics. Whether it is the disaster relief programs like Cyclone Nargis or any other UN development projects in Burma graft or kick backs or corruption by any other name is where public funds were being siphoned off. Ali Babar, in one of the tales of A Thousand and One Nights had only forty thieves with him to plunder and steal the wealth of Baghdad. The military regime in Burma has ten to the power of N number of thieves to plunder and pillage the natural resources of Burma. No wonder we have become the begging bowl of Asia from the rice bowl of Asia. To those who dont know much about how the Foreign Office in Burma(or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs MOFA which is also an acronym for Ministry of Family Affairs) operates, let me enlighten you by telling you that Burmese embassies unlike any other mission, are like procurement offices for goods and services exclusively for the ruling military regime and their families; a tax-collection office but rather like picciottiyoung men in the organised crime syndicate such as Mafia, squeezing money out of their clients, expatriates living and working in countries around the world are being taxed. Short of using a lupara a sawed off shotgun the staff at the embassies would use their power vested in them to squeeze u pizzu protection money of a different kind like tax for consular services such as extension of passport validity, endorsements, visas and so on. Without the payment the expatriates would have nothing. As for His Excellencies the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiaries, once they have been appointed they are being blessed with the licence to steal (while they are out of sight and out of mind too). They were allowed to use their discretion to help themselves before their official retirement. They have to be careful not to forget their responsibility of paying it up though. It also depends on how innovative the ambassadors and their families are if they are to gain much out of their assignment. The Burmese diplomats claim that, When I first began my service in the Foreign Ministry I thought that, over time and perhaps with the help of my efforts, the military would ease its grip and send Myanmar on a path to greater political pluralism. However, the truth is that senior military officials are consolidating their grip on power and seeking to stamp out the voices of those seeking democracy, human rights and individual liberties. Sweet, but isnt it a bit thick of him to come to his senses after thirty-five years of service and at the end of his assignment. Unlike the well known George Kennans Long Cable which helped the then US Administration formulate the policy of containment against the Soviet Union, there never has been (and never will be) circumstances where a civilian public officials, as high as the rank of Minister Counsellor or even higher at the Burmese missions overseas or any other Department for that matter can make inputs into matters of policy or they are being allowed to influence policy outcomes. That is just not the case at all. As far as I can recalled, he began his career as a Third Secretary of which majority of the recruits have fathers or close relatives who were either cabinet ministers or Central Executive Committee memb ers of the Burma Socialist Program Party. One can simply tell whether that is the case or not by looking at the bio-data he provided. It is simple, the candidate need not be the one who had to have necessary skills and qualifications but it is rather their parents who must have the required qualifications. Senior General Than Shwe was known to have more than two of his daughters working in the MOFA and they have served (this may no be the

appropriate word for them) in missions overseas as well until recently. The Foreign Office that I knew no longer exists. It is the other ministry that has nothing to do with foreign affairs that exists today. One swallow may not bring summer neither one rat (an infame- a rat or a renegade) leaving the ship will not make it sinks. Whatever the motive of his defection, to me it seems too much of a coincidence for the same high ranking diplomats from the same Burmese mission in the United States to have sought political asylum. If the saying, Perception implies understanding as well as awareness, it is a process of inference in which people construct their own version of reality on the basis of information provided through the five senses that we see things in life. These defections can be a blow to the military regime (without their military uniforms), especially at a time when they are portraying to the world that they are on the road to reforms and they have changed so sanctions should now be lifted. When the United States and the West imposed economic sanctions since the late 80s and 90s they said it was the United Sates and the West who were missing out rather than hurting Burma. They have snubbed the noses of those who have imposed sanctions on the country while investments and trade from unethical countries like China, Thailand, India, Singapore and others were on the high. Now that targeted sanctions or smart sanctions are being imposed, their personal accounts in foreign banks are being frozen, they are not desperate. What is the point of pillage and murder when they cannot even touch the proceeds of their crime? Like cormorants used by the Chinese fishermen to catch fish, because of the ring around their necks they cannot swallow the fish they caught (especially the large ones). At least, unlike the military regime and their cronies, the birds know that they will be rewarded in kind for their efforts. The United States is known to many people in the world as the land of opportunity. People were drawn to its shores from both lands near and afar. People risk their lives and try to get in by means fair or foul so that they may have a chance to live in freedom. However, the United States Administration must have to make sure that the generosity she extends must not be exploited by opportunists. END