Myanmar’s Incomplete Political Transition Is Not ‘Hunky-Dory,’ Says Kerry
Myanmar’s Incomplete Political Transition Is Not ‘Hunky-Dory,’ Says Kerry
Bloomberg Businessweek, 11 Aug 2014
URL: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-11/kerry-visits-myanmar-to-buck-up-the-reform-movement
Since July 2012, U.S. companies have cumulatively invested $612 million in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). Among the leading corporations hoping to carve out market share in the Southeast Asian country of 60 million, which kicked off political reforms in 2011: Coca-Cola (KO), General Electric (GE), Caterpillar (CAT), MasterCard (MA), Western Union (WU), Procter & Gamble (PG), and Gap (GPS).
Yet questions remain about the stability of the fledgling democracy and whether hard-won political reforms are in danger of being rolled back. In particular, Burmese grassroots activists and international NGOs have sounded alarms over the persecution of the Rohingya minority group—thousands of whom live in squalid conditions in coastal refugee camps—and the sentencing of local journalists for reporting on Burmese military facilities, evidence of continuing press restrictions.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who visited Myanmar to participate in meetings with counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), told foreign media that Myanmar’s political transition was fragile and incomplete. “Is everything hunky-dory? No, not yet. Absolutely not,” he said, as the New York Times reported. “There are still things that need to be done.”
Yet questions remain about the stability of the fledgling democracy and whether hard-won political reforms are in danger of being rolled back. In particular, Burmese grassroots activists and international NGOs have sounded alarms over the persecution of the Rohingya minority group—thousands of whom live in squalid conditions in coastal refugee camps—and the sentencing of local journalists for reporting on Burmese military facilities, evidence of continuing press restrictions.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who visited Myanmar to participate in meetings with counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), told foreign media that Myanmar’s political transition was fragile and incomplete. “Is everything hunky-dory? No, not yet. Absolutely not,” he said, as the New York Times reported. “There are still things that need to be done.”