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COMMENTARY
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Although Burma's notorious censors have not completely lifted restrictions on what can be reported, journalists say they now have greater freedom than they've had at any time in recent decades.
No longer silenced by draconian controls over the flow of information, and encouraged by comments coming from high-ranking officials—including Upper House Speaker Khin Aung Myint's acknowledgment of an electoral victory by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) in 1990—the NLD decided in November to participate in by-elections expected to take place early in 2012. This was seen as a dramatic reversal of its boycott of the 2010 election, and signaled to the outside world that Burma's opposing forces were moving closer to a detente. Soon after the NLD declared its intention to re-register as a political party, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) announced that it had decided to allow Burma to assume the chairmanship of the regional grouping in 2012. At the same time, US President Barack Obama, after consulting with Suu Kyi by telephone while attending an Asean summit in Bali, told reporters that he would be sending US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Burma by the end of the month. Clinton's visit, the first by a US secretary of state in more than 50 years, was followed several weeks later by one by Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba; and in January, the UK's foreign secretary, William Hague, is expected to make a visit. This is a remarkable turnaround for a country that has long been shunned by the world's richest and most powerful democracies. But this does not mean that Burma is ready to reclaim its rightful place in the global community just yet. Western sanctions remain in place, and won't be removed until Burma's baby steps toward democracy begin to look more like strides. In the meantime, however, would-be investors are taking a closer look at the country's potential and countries that have long cultivated commercial ties with Burma's generals, such as Thailand, are becoming increasingly confident that their patience will soon start to pay off in a big way. One of the first hurdles to ending sanctions is the fact that Burma still holds hundreds of political prisoners in detention, even after the release of a few dozen in May and around 200 more in October. Progress in addressing the country's ethnic conflicts—and an immediate end to the Burmese army's targeting of civilians in combat zones—is also key to Burma's efforts to come in from the cold. Government minister Aung Thaung, who leads the “peace committee” tasked with negotiating an end to Burma's many ethnic conflicts, has said that it could take up to three years to reach peace agreements with all of the armed groups in the country. Hopefully, however, the government intends to go beyond bringing ethnic armies “into the legal fold” with ceasefire agreements that offer no long-term promise of peace and stability, as the current situation in Kachin State amply illustrates. And we must also hope that other moves by the new government, such as proposed economic reforms and the introduction of laws that legalize trade unions and guarantee the right to peaceful protest, will prove to have a lasting impact on Burma's future. After decades as one of the world's poorest and most conflict-ridden countries, the pieces are finally in place for Burma to make real progress in the years ahead—provided those in control have the political will to carry through what they've started. This article will appear in the print edition of The Irrawaddy, Vol. 19, No. 4. 1 | 2 | COMMENTS (5)
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