George Yeo’s Meet the People Session at McDonald’s

The focus then shifted to ASEAN and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Mr. George Yeo said “it is very sad that she has been imprisoned for so many years.” But he was quick to add that we must not oversimplify the problems in Burma. He felt that as the country was very complex in its make up with the Burmese making up only about 50% of the total population of the entire population of Burma, only the military could hold the entire country together. He added that it was the military that had ruled Burma from independence and that it was Aung San Suu Kyi’s father, General Aung San, that was the original military man that had ruled the country since independence.
He said that it was also General Aung San created the rule that a Burmese who married a foreigner cannot rule the country and that now Aung San Suu Kyi is married to a foreigner. Mr Yeo said it was because her husband is a foreigner and from the ‘western world’ that the ‘western world’ has come to support Aung San Suu Kyi and have failed to recognise the rule of the military. The problem in Burma is actually “a very deep family dispute”, he said, and the road to democracy for Burma is long and that the elections next year is but a small step towards that goal.
He said that ASEAN has worked well in keeping the peace in this region, in subjecting the member nations to peer pressure and in trying to forge economic integration.

Sunday, 2 August 2009, 1:47 am