Burma Save

President Obama's trip to Southeast Asia is interesting to anyone who is paying attention to geopolitics. What do Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand have in common? Proximity to China would be the one big thing.

The President was the first Chief of State to visit Burma. He wants to reward the brutal junta that rules that nation for moving in the direction of less brutal. It is likely that the concerns of Burma's strongmen over growing Chinese power and aggression mostly explain their decision to be better dictators. That allowed the President to combine our concern for human rights with our strategic interests.

Nothing on his tour is likely to stand out more than his visit with Aung San Suu Kyi. She is the face of democracy and human dignity in her country. She spent fifteen years under house arrest after the military nullified the 1990 election. She has paid her dues.

I wish that the President had not chosen to refer to the nation as "Myanmar". This use of the junta's invented name for the nation was not necessary. However, his visit with Suu Kyi is much more important. This was very well done, Mr. President.

Comments

[Donald Pay]

Your ethnocentrism is showing, KB. "Myanma" is the historical native written form for the name of the country/peoples and is more inclusive. "Burma" is the English form of "Bama." which is the spoken form referring to one ethnic group. In many of Southeast Asia languages the written and spoken language can be a bit different.

What is diplomatic is to call the country by the name it has adopted for itself. We called ourselves, for example, "The United States of America." Should France have called us "the English colonies in America?"

[Ken Blanchard]

Donald: you can side with the junta if you choose. I choose not.

[Donald Pay]

I hardly side with the junta, but I'm not going to be a stupid idiot, either. Attack the junta on something that matters. The fact that you don't understand Southeast Asian language shows ignorance, not strength.

[tdaxp]

Hey Ken,

Really like your blog. Here's some background on the name issue.

http://www.geographictravels.com/2012/11/burma-or-myanmar-battle-of-which-one-is.html