By WAI MOE
Monday, April 26, 2010
Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyer tried to clarify a controversial remark over the weekend by Burmese pro-democracy leader on the Thai political situation, saying it was a general conversation, not a policy comment.
“She made the remark during a short, general conversation,” said Nyan Win, her long-time lawyer. “If I recall her conversation, she said the 2008 Constitution [in Burma] was written by the military. There is also a Constitution, written by the military, in Thailand. Now it causes unrest [in Thailand]. So if the military writes constitutions, it could be a concern for a nation's stability.”
A member of the National League for Democracy Party sprinkles water to the portrait of their leader Aung San Suu Kyi as they celebrate the New Year at the party's headquarters in Rangoon on April 13. (Photo: AP)
Nyan Win also said Suu Kyi did not mention Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra during the conversation, as reported by Agence France-Presse on Saturday. A quotation by the news agency alleged that Suu Kyi said : “Thaksin was an elected person. The military seized power from an elected person. The Constitution was drawn up by the military.”
“I did not say that she mentioned the name [Thaksin],” said Nyan Win. “What I said is that she said a military coup ousted an elected government and wrote a Constitution. Now the ruling under the Constitution affects unrest [in Thailand],” Nyan Win told The Irrawaddy on Monday.
He said that Suu Kyi’s comments were casual remarks, not a policy statement on the Thai political scene.
No media has had access to Suu Kyi while she has been under detention, and media reports on her thoughts and observations are gleaned from comments made her lawyer Nyan Win, who is allowed to meet with her regularly.
Nyan Win's recent summary of their conversations stirred up a wide range of reactions among the Thai media, Thai politicians and intellectuals.
“I feel very disappointed. Aung San Suu Kyi should understand Thailand better than this,” said Thai Sen. Prasong Nuluck, quoted in the Thai-language Matichon newspaper in Bangkok. He called for an investigation into Suu Kyi’s financial assets to determine if she received “any money from any person,” presumably a reference to ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
The senator said Suu Kyi’s comments would cause damage to Thailand’s image in the international community.
Matichon quoted Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn as saying that Suu Kyi could not be uninformed about Thailand's political situation: “Some countries might not get enough information because of the language or because the methods of communication are systematically blocked. Thus, the news may not be complete.”
During her detention, Suu Kyi keeps up with Burmese politics and international affairs through a shortwave radio receiver, listening to foreign-based broadcasts in the Burmese language as well as BBC World Service.
Thai intellectuals who sympathize with Burma’s pro-democracy movement also questioned Suu Kyi’s comments, with some reacting to her comments on Facebook and blogs.
One Thai expert on Burma questioned on her Facebook page whether it was really Suu Kyi’s comments.
“Politics and the military in Thailand are very different from those in Burma. It is surprising to learn that Suu Kyi compared the Burmese junta’s Constitution to Thailand’s,” she wrote. “Both were written under the military, however, under far different political contexts. We shouldn't have a stereotypical image of the so-called 'military,'” she said.
Although Thailand’s Democrat Party has supported the democracy movement in Burma during the past two decades, Suu Kyi’s comment could harm relations between the Burmese opposition and the Democrat Party in Thailand, some analysts said.
Last year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has supported Thaksin after his ouster, said their were similarities to Thaksin's plight and Suu Kyi's, which angered many Burmese at home and aboard.
“Many people talk about Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma, so why not talk about Thaksin? That cannot be referred to as interfering [in Thailand's affairs],” Hun Sen said at the Asean summit in the Thai resort of Hua Hin in October 2009.
Source: Irrawaddy News
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