Taipei, Oct. 18 (CNA) The democratic movement will be successful in its push to overthrow the 43-year-old tyranny in Myanmar, and Taiwan can show its support by reviewing its investments in the country, a visiting Myanmarese opposition representative said Thursday.
Unless Asian countries, including Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore, stop investing in Myanmar, U.S. economic sanctions on Myanmar's military junta will not work because Myanmar economy remains stable, said Nyo Ohn Myint, the Global Burma Campaign coordinator of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the main opposition in Myanmar.
Myint made the appeal at a Taipei conference, titled "Beyond Rangoon: Burma's yesterday, today and tomorrow, " which was co-sponsored by Taiwang's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Thinktank.
Myint, who prefers to refer to his homeland as Burma rather than Myanmar -- the name coined by the military junta -- said foreign investment in the country has not been helping the people. Myanmar does not have an open market economy as most of the companies were controlled by junta generals, he said, which means that most of the money goes to their pockets instead of to the people.
Taiwan can do more to support democracy in Myanmar, he said. Taiwan, especially the DPP which brought an end to the Kuomintang's (KMT's) long-time authoritative regime, can offer the benefits of its experience in democratic transition to the NLD, which Myint believed "will collapse within two years even if it wins the power tomorrow" due to a lack of democratic experience.
"We will win pretty soon. This is the final push, " said Bangkok-based Myint, whose older brother was declared missing during recent demonstration in Yangoon. The college professor-turned-activist said the most encouraging sign for Myanmar's democratic movement is the participation of the younger generation.
"Before, these young men only heard about the 1988 demonstration and crackdown. But now they have experienced what it was like, " he said of the junta's recent crackdown and killing of unarmed demonstrators and monks.
Myint pointed out that the "China factor" has played an important role in the military junta's hardline stance because the junta received financial, military and political support from China, which also has a veto as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
Local professors also called on the Taiwanese government to do more to support Myanmar democracy. Once the Refugee Act is passed in the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan will be able to offer political asylum to Myanmarese dissidents, said Shih Cheng-feng, a professor at Tamkang University.
However, Soochow University professor Wu Chih-chung questioned the actual impact of reducing foreign investment in Myanmar on the junta because it will probably just "bring the junta closer to China."