It would be difficult to find a stauncher defender of Burma's human rights record and more ardent promoter of the country's new, nominally civilian administration than Ye Myint Aung, the middle-aged former army officer who has made quite a name for himself in international diplomatic circles in recent years.
As Burma's sitting ambassador in Geneva—a high-profile position he has held since the government of of President Thein Sein was formed in March—Ye Myint Aung has had ample opportunity to make the case for his bosses in Naypyidaw. Priding himself on his ability to set the record straight, he takes to his task of correcting Western misperceptions of Burma with evident zeal.
In a speech delivered to the Geneva-based International Labor Organization (ILO) in June, for instance, he told his audience he regretted that “even the civilized countries are using the incorrect name” to refer to the country he represents—called Myanmar by its rulers, but Burma by many in the West.
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| Burma’s Ambassador in Geneva, Ye Myint Aung.(Source: South China Morning Post) |
In the same speech (available on the Geneva embassy's website, which has become something of a repository for his views), he also reiterated his government's long-held position that there are no political prisoners in Burma, nor any “so-called labor activists” in the country's jails. “I would like to highlight that action was taken against only those for their violation of existing law,” he said, echoing the official line.
And, in a closing remark, he also rejected criticism of the slow pace of political change in Burma. “The government has been trying its best but everything can't be done immediately like an instant noodle,” he said, displaying his knack for using striking images to make a point.
In February 2009, Ye Myint Aung's unique way with words even made international headlines. In a letter posted on the website of the Burmese consulate in Hong Kong, where he was serving as consul general, he described the Rohingya, a Muslim minority living mainly in Arakan State, as “ugly as ogres,” with “dark brown” skin. By way of contrast, he offered himself as an example of a typical Burmese: “handsome,” with a “fair and soft” complexion.
These comments may not have endeared him to his diplomatic colleagues from majority-Muslim Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia and Brunei, who reportedly kept their distance from him after this episode, but they evidently did not hurt his career as a senior diplomat.
Perhaps sensing that his forthright manner had met with approval in high places, later the same year he waded into another controversy. While pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was embroiled in trumped-up charges of violating her terms of house arrest by allowing the American citizen John Yettaw, who swam to her house uninvited, to remain there overnight rather than force him to risk arrest, Ye Myint Aung referred to the Missouri man as “Suu Kyi's boyfriend.”
According to a Burmese diplomatic source, Ye Myint Aung's snide innuendo was a deliberate attempt to curry favor with the Burmese junta's top leadership.
“When Daw Suu was on trial at Insein Prison over the Yettaw case, [Ye Myint Aung] held a brief meeting with his subordinates at the embassy and asked them what they thought about describing Yettaw as Suu Kyi's boyfriend,” said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. “No one dared to go against his view, so they all just nodded their heads in support of his idea.”
Not all Burmese diplomats are as gung-ho about pleasing their masters, however. According to a US diplomatic cable from Rangoon leaked by Wikileaks last Friday, most diplomats and civil servants in Burma are “no fan of their leaders.”
After a meeting with officials from the Burmese Foreign Ministry in Napyidaw in November 2008, Larry Dinger, the US diplomatic chief in Rangoon, noted in a cable that the Burmese senior career diplomats, many with prior service in the United States and with their children studying there, “were welcoming, avoided polemics, and appeared genuinely interested in greater contact with the embassy.”
The cable also mentioned the insecurity of Burmese officials, who fear being spied upon by the government.
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