Open Letter to John Kerry on the Eve of His Burma Visit: Time to Ask Tough Questions

U.S. Secretary of State Kerry to meet Burma President Thein Sein.

Dear Mr. Secretary:

By the time you arrive in Burma this Saturday, four reporters from Unity journal and the publication's chief executive would have already begun serving their ten-year prison sentence with hard labor, for reporting on a military facility the Burmese government would prefer to keep a secret. As you stroll through the sunlit pavilions of Shwe Dagon pagoda, a cloud hangs over 50 journalists, who are facing charges for holding a silent protest during President Thein Sein's visit to the Myanmar Peace Center.

The cells left vacant by the release of 651 political prisoners in 2012 are gradually filling up once more. According to Burma's Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), "The number of political incarcerations has been steadily increasing since the beginning of 2014, with a net average of six new political prisoners sentenced each month. In light of the 102 prisoners currently awaiting trial, if the current trend continues, then Burma is set to see over 100 political prisoners by year's end" (AAPP monthly report, July 2014).

Meanwhile, bands of sword-wielding rioters had been allowed to wreck havoc and kill with impunity in Mandalay, the country's second largest city. This is just the latest in a series of communal violence that has claimed hundreds of lives and displaced thousands. The government seems unwilling to take the necessary steps to protect its most vulnerable citizens, the Muslim minority. Nor does it seem particularly eager to take actions against those who preach hatred and outright discrimination online and offline, sometimes under the cover of a monk's robe.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the one candidate who enjoys a majority support in the country and the respect of U.S. and its allies, is still legally disqualified from running in the next election. Members of the current administration claim to have shed their authoritarian past. Yet, they seem to be in no hurry to remove the roadblocks to democracy the previous military regime had put in place.

Little has been done to enact laws, or revise the existing ones, to guarantee the public's right to free assembly, to curb the military's parliamentary privileges, or to let the country's most prominent democratic icon compete in the upcoming election.  On the other hand, President Thein Sein had no trouble ordering a commission and the country's high court to draft a bill that would restrict interfaith marriages.  If signed into law, the so-called "race-protection act," proposed by the extremist 969 group, "would require Buddhist women to get permission from their parents and local government officials before marrying a man from another faith. It also includes restrictions on converting to another religion, a limit to the number of children people can have" (The Irrawaddy, March 7, 2014).

In September 2012, as U.S. took steps to ease economic sanctions against Burma, Secretary Clinton said, "In recognition of the continued progress toward reform and in response to requests from both the government and the opposition, the U.S. is taking the next step in normalizing our commercial relationship."

The more recent political climate in Burma -- marked by journalists under threat, communal conflict, the rise of extremism, and the lack of constitutional reform -- suggests not continued progress but a serious backsliding. What's more? The current government's foot-dragging and lackadaisical approach may be motivated by self-interest. Instability provides justification for delays; procrastination postpones its inevitable exit.

A government that tries its best but fails against overwhelming odds deserves our praises and support. But a government that deliberately fails to do its best in order to prolong its grip on power does not. 

U.S. should not -- must not -- reward an administration that's leading Burma in the wrong trajectory. Instead, it should hold the current government accountable for the promises it made two years ago to elicit goodwill from the international community. It should demand that the country be put back on the right track, with concrete measures to ensure the upcoming election is free and fair, its religious and ethnic minorities are protected, and its laws reflect internationally recognized democratic values.

When you tour the city of Rangoon (my city of birth), when your motorcade passes through its downtown district dotted with teashops or the old university campuses with fresh coats of paint (the facelift that resulted from President Obama's 2012 visit), please listen for the footsteps of the dissident students who marched along those pavements 26 years ago; hear their hopes and dreams that even their untimely death and the passage of time couldn't wipe away; and see the peacock banners they hoisted thru the perilous fight.

In 1988, when these protesters took to the streets in defiance of the Burmese Army's bullets and bayonets, they were inspired by the American Dream of Justice and Liberty. They have proven to be from the home of the brave; however, Burma is not yet the land of the free.

President Thein Sein's "reformist" government is made up of many members of the previous military regime that did everything they could to crush the 88 uprising's spirit. Asking them to remain true to it now would be the best way to test their earnestness for reform.