One Swallow Does Not Make the Summer

8/6/2019 One Swallow Does Not Make the Summer

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One Swallow Does Not Make The Summer

By Saneitha Nagani

The recent defection of a high ranking Burmese diplomat the Burmese mission in Washington DC

makes me ponder over an English proverb, One swallow does not make the summer. The most we can put our

hopes on is that, summer will be here soon, how soon no one can tell la mer kya mer as in Burmese - all in

good time.

In the same vein of thought we can say that, one rat leaving the boat does not mean that the boat is sinking.

Usually rats are creatures that will be the first to know whether a boat is sinking or not. Instead of assuming and

speculating this or that, we should look at the circumstances in which the rat is leaving the boat.

In computing parlance, we should dice a bit more, dig a bit deeper, slice and dice in a number of ways to

get the full understanding of why those so-called high ranking Burmese diplomat s at the mission in Washing

DC , not just one but two, chose t o defect. Was it the lapse in security at the mission that they can easily defect?

Or was it the asylum legislation in the United States itself that has becomes a pull factor for foreign diplomats

to seek political asylum? Or still is it because of something like what Nicholas Burns, a former official from the

US State Department and spokesperson of the White House under President George W Bush, said in an

interview, America with its freedom is such a country that makes people wants to come and stay.

Mr Burns also said in the interview that, No one wants to go and live in countries like China (or Russia). Apart

from a handful of the North Koreans who risked their lives to escape from the Kimpossible regime of Kim

Jong Il and his man-made hell seeking sanctuary, neither China nor Russia, have problems from people seeking

asylum in their countries. As a hypothetical, I wonder whether those two high-ranking Burmese diplomats who

defected in the United States might also defected if they were posted in China, Russia or any other countries that

have ne democratic forms of governments? Only when they are in the United States that out of the blues they

found their conscience and walked out on the regime, joined the democratic movement and want to live in the

land of the free. I doubted that they might even think of defecting, let alone doing, even if they were posted in

the largest democratic country such as India.

I am thankful that I have the opportunity to study about China when I was in the junior rank. The one thing that

I have learnt from studying China was that to understand the political system as a whole one needs to study thepersonalities and characters of the influential people in the system. Only then one can make out what was the

thinking behind their actions. I have also read somewhere that Henry Kissingers style of foreign policy has

been all about mastering contingency. According to him, any account of politics and government would be

shallow and self-defeating if we believe in what people say or do at their face value alone. Well have to master

the contingency that is confronting us now.

Those Burmese diplomats - one a career diplomat with thirty-five years of service in foreign affairs and the

other a former military intelligence officer who had a helicopter promotion not only landing him in the

Foreign Office but also getting him an assignment considered to be number one in the Foreign Office. These

were people of whom most Sinologists would have dubbed them in the whatevertism category of the factions

in Chinese politics. They have this mindless obedience who would not hesitate to obey when orders are given

from on high, like Senior General Than Shwe or General Khin Nyunt. The former high ranking military

intelligence officer and diplomat admitted that part of his work at the embassy in Washington DC was to buyChinese martial arts DVDs for Senior General Than Shwe and send them to Burma by the diplomatic bag.

However, I dont think that the impress money of US 80,000 dollars that he allegedly returned to one of the staff

at the embassy when he left was not for just buying DVDs.

In my opinion, (and also after looking at the claims in their letters to the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice

then and now Mrs Hillary Clinton)they were just like rats in a sinking ship, saving their own shin. Their main

interests are self preservation. They have change sides not to serve the people of Burma in their struggle

against the brutal military regime or to support them in their quest for a democratic change.


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One was at the end of his assignment, which normally is three years (according to my sources he already

received his orders to return home and he was very upset when his request to leave his son in the United States

without the benefit of diplomatic privileges was turned down by the new minister).The other sought sanctuary in

the US when his wife, under suspicious circumstances was issued a writ to appear in the courts in Rangoon in

regard to family business matters. During that time the military regime was carrying out a comprehensive purge

of all the military intelligence officers who served under General Khin Nyunt. Though cloaked in the mystery of

a writ, it must have been obvious to the former military intelligence officer incarnate the high ranking diplomatthat he realised that it was time to save his own skin. Thereby, he defected in March 2005.

The political situation in Burma, with its gross violation of human rights, crimes against humanity and war

crimes in regions where ethnic minorities lived has also been a growth industry for the so-called Burma

experts, lobby groups, Public Relations firms, NGOs and so on. The United Nations and the Secretary-General

with the appointment of a number of special envoys for Burma could not be cleansed of the dirt they have

contracted for wading in the murky waters of Burmese politics. Whether it is the disaster relief programs like

Cyclone Nargis or any other UN development projects in Burma graft or kick backs or corruption by any

other name is where public funds were being siphoned off. Ali Babar, in one of the tales of A Thousand and

One Nights had only forty thieves with him to plunder and steal the wealth of Baghdad. The military regime in

Burma has ten to the power of N number of thieves to plunder and pillage the natural resources of Burma. No

wonder we have become the begging bowl of Asia from the rice bowl of Asia.

To those who dont know much about how the Foreign Office in Burma(or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

MOFA which is also an acronym for Ministry of Family Affairs) operates, let me enlighten you by telling you

that Burmese embassies unlike any other mission, are like procurement offices for goods and services

exclusively for the ruling military regime and their families; a tax-collection office but rather like picciotti-

young men in the organised crime syndicate such as Mafia, squeezing money out of their clients, expatriates

living and working in countries around the world are being taxed. Short of using a lupara a sawed off

shotgun the staff at the embassies would use their power vested in them to squeeze u pizzu protection

money of a different kind like tax for consular services such as extension of passport validity, endorsements,

visas and so on. Without the payment the expatriates would have nothing. As for His Excellencies the

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiaries, once they have been appointed they are being blessed with the

licence to steal (while they are out of sight and out of mind too). They were allowed to use their discretion to

help themselves before their official retirement. They have to be careful not to forget their responsibility ofpaying it up though. It also depends on how innovative the ambassadors and their families are if they are to

gain much out of their assignment.

The Burmese diplomats claim that, When I first began my service in the Foreign Ministry I thought that, over

time and perhaps with the help of my efforts, the military would ease its grip and send Myanmar on a path to

greater political pluralism. However, the truth is that senior military officials are consolidating their grip on

power and seeking to stamp out the voices of those seeking democracy, human rights and individual liberties.

Sweet, but isnt it a bit thick of him to come to his senses after thirty-five years of service and at the end of

his assignment. Unlike the well known George Kennans Long Cable which helped the then US

Administration formulate the policy of containment against the Soviet Union, there never has been (and never

will be) circumstances where a civilian public officials, as high as the rank of Minister Counsellor or even

higher at the Burmese missions overseas or any other Department for that matter can make inputs into matters of

policy or they are being allowed to influence policy outcomes. That is just not the case at all.

As far as I can recalled, he began his career as a Third Secretary of which majority of the recruits have fathers or

close relatives who were either cabinet ministers or Central Executive Committee members of the Burma

Socialist Program Party. One can simply tell whether that is the case or not by looking at the bio-data he

provided. It is simple, the candidate need not be the one who had to have necessary skills and qualifications but

it is rather their parents who must have the required qualifications. Senior General Than Shwe was known to

have more than two of his daughters working in the MOFA and they have served (this may no be the


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appropriate word for them) in missions overseas as well until recently. The Foreign Office that I knew no longer

exists. It is the other ministry that has nothing to do with foreign affairs that exists today.

One swallow may not bring summer neither one rat (an infame- a rat or a renegade) leaving the ship will not

make it sinks. Whatever the motive of his defection, to me it seems too much of a coincidence for the same

high ranking diplomats from the same Burmese mission in the United States to have sought political asylum. If

the saying, Perception implies understanding as well as awareness, it is a process of inference in which people

construct their own version of reality on the basis of information provided through the five senses that we see

things in life. These defections can be a blow to the military regime (without their military uniforms),

especially at a time when they are portraying to the world that they are on the road to reforms and they have

changed so sanctions should now be lifted.

When the United States and the West imposed economic sanctions since the late 80s and 90s they said it was the

United Sates and the West who were missing out rather than hurting Burma. They have snubbed the noses of

those who have imposed sanctions on the country while investments and trade from unethical countries like

China, Thailand, India, Singapore and others were on the high. Now that targeted sanctions or smart

sanctions are being imposed, their personal accounts in foreign banks are being frozen, they are not desperate.

What is the point of pillage and murder when they cannot even touch the proceeds of their crime? Like

cormorants used by the Chinese fishermen to catch fish, because of the ring around their necks they cannot

swallow the fish they caught (especially the large ones). At least, unlike the military regime and their cronies,the birds know that they will be rewarded in kind for their efforts.

The United States is known to many people in the world as the land of opportunity. People were drawn to its

shores from both lands near and afar. People risk their lives and try to get in by means fair or foul so that they

may have a chance to live in freedom. However, the United States Administration must have to make sure that

the generosity she extends must not be exploited by opportunists. END

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One Swallow Does Not Make the Summer