Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy leader, warned of a “time bomb” of drugs, gambling and juvenile delinquency unless swift investment and economic reforms relieved her country’s high rates of unemployment.
Speaking on her first journey abroad in 24 years, the former political prisoner asked foreign investors to move quickly to ease Burma’s chronic economic problems, but cautioned them against over-optimism and warned them not to demand quick returns.
“I am extremely worried about the high levels of unemployment in Burma, particularly youth unemployment,” she told a gathering of business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Bangkok yesterday.
“That’s a time bomb. Young people sit around at palm toddy [a strong Burmese alcohol] shops with nothing to do. Some have taken to drugs, some have taken to gambling. If this goes on, we won’t be able to reform them and we won’t be able to reform our country. The problem is not just joblessness but hopelessness.”
She was greeted with a standing ovation at the central Bangkok hotel for her first foreign speech since her release from house arrest and her election in April as an MP. But she used the occasion to give a frank and cautionary assessment of Burma’s prospects to a business community increasingly excited about the country as a new and potentially lucrative investment destination.
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“These days I am coming across what I call reckless optimism, and reckless optimism doesn’t help you and it doesn’t help us,” she said. “A little bit of healthy scepticism is in order.”
She signalled her opposition to profiteers who take advantage of the political reforms introduced by Burma’s former junta, which have been rewarded by an easing of sanctions by the European Union and United States. And she warned of the dangers of increased corruption and inequality which could be the result of unbalanced economic growth.
“We need capacity built from the ground upwards,” she said. “I’d like you to think about how to build a strong basic foundation for our reform success. Don’t think how much reward that investment will bring for those investors — our country must benefit as well as those who invest there.
“We don’t want investment to mean more opportunities for corruption and greater inequality. We want investment to mean more jobs. ... Please think of the opportunities Burma’s offering the world for you, as well as for us. Please help us to meet our needs.”
Ms Suu Kyi’s visit to Thailand is the first time she has been outside Burma since taking on the leadership of the democracy movement in Thailand in 1988, and since her release from house arrest in 2010 following 15 years in detention. It is the first stop on a summer tour which is expected to take her to France, Ireland, Norway, Switzerland and Britain.
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As well as attending the World Economic Forum, she has focused on the plight of the 2 million Burmese economic immigrants in Thailand, 1 million of them without legal documentation.
Ms Suu Kyi singled out the corruption and partiality of Burma’s courts as one of the biggest problems facing foreign businesses in Burma, despite promises by the Government of President Thein Sein to enact a new investment law.
“Even the best investment law is no good if there are no courts clean enough to administer it,” she said.
“People in the Government don’t seem to see the need for judicial reform. I consider the need to be very urgent indeed.”