Aung San Suu Kyi tells Burmese migrants: ‘I will try my best’

Suu Kyi’s foray beyond Burma’s borders is a significant show of confidence in
dramatic changes that have swept her homeland since a near 50-year military
dictatorship was replaced with a quasi-civilian regime last year.

The former political prisoner, who won a seat in parliament in historic April
by-elections, is expected to meet Thailand’s prime minister and attend the
World Economic Forum on East Asia during several days in the country.

Her decision to begin the trip by meeting some of the hundreds of thousands of
Burma migrants who work in low paid jobs in Thai homes, factories and
fishing boats, shines a spotlight on a group that has long been marginalised
and prone to exploitation.

Thailand’s workforce is heavily reliant on low-cost foreign workers, both
legal and trafficked, with Burma nationals accounting for around 80 per cent
of the two million registered migrants in the kingdom. There are thought to
be a further one million undocumented foreign workers.

“Most of the workers here want to go back home but we can’t afford that.
There are no jobs back there and it’s difficult to eat, difficult to live,”
said Aung Htun, 28, a rice mill worker.

Suu Kyi met several migrant workers as part of her visit, hearing stories that
conveyed a range of experiences and promised to discuss the issues with the
Thai authorities.

Pavin Chachavalpongpun, of the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at Japan’s
Kyoto University, said the veteran activist was looking to “reconnect
her lost connection with those who live outside the country”.

“There are a lot of Burmese exiles in Thailand, Burmese dissidents and
immigrant workers, that is why she chose to go there,” he said.

Suu Kyi’s ventures overseas, which also include a European tour in June, are
seen as the completion of her transformation from prisoner to global
politician.

The 66-year-old, who spent 15 of the past 22 years under house arrest, refused
to travel abroad in the past even when the former junta denied her dying
husband a visa to visit her, because of fears she would never be allowed to
return.

Suu Kyi also said she would meet refugees in northern Thailand, where roughly
100,000 people live in camps after being displaced by ethnic conflict in
Burma’s eastern border areas.

She is scheduled to speak at an open discussion with World Economic Forum
founder Klaus Schwab and appear on Friday at a session on the role of Asian
women.

Suu Kyi’s European travel plans include an address to an International Labour
Organization conference in Geneva on June 14.

After that she will make a speech in Oslo on June 16 to finally accept the
Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded in 1991 for her peaceful struggle for
democracy.

She also intends to travel to Britain, where she lived for years with her
family, and will address parliament in London on June 21.

Burma President Thein Sein, who is credited with a string of reforms that have
prompted the international community to ease sanctions, has postponed an
official visit to Thailand which would have clashed with Suu Kyi’s trip.

He will now travel to the country on June 4 and 5, according to the Thai
foreign ministry.

Source: AFP

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