“A correspondent in Rangoon” has penned a lengthy article on the fate of Ross Dunkley, the Australian Editor-in-Chief of The Myanmar Times who is currently detained at Insein Prison. It includes many important details on the case that have not been reported elsewhere and is a must-read for anybody who follows the prospects of foreign investment in the country.
The correspondent concludes that:
For businesses considering entering the Burmese market, the predicament Myanmar Consolidated Media’s backers find themselves in should serve as a prescient warning: Burma is not a country for faint-hearted foreigners. Despite the regime’s appalling human rights record, most countries, including Australia, do not ban investment. Sanctions are unnecessary because the risks associated with investing are so great.
This strikes me as a particularly notable observation, and one that has been given too little considered attention. It is tremendous to see such thoughtful analysis finding its way beyond Burma’s borders.
For businesses considering entering the Burmese market, the predicament Myanmar Consolidated Media’s backers find themselves in should serve as a prescient warning: Burma is not a country for
faint-heartedforeigners.The terminally greedy… looking, like the junta itself, to make the proverbial ‘killing’ rather than a living as all the poor peoples of Burma would be delighted to do… are likely to be killed themselves by the thugs in power there.
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Not to toot my own horn, but I made a similar point about the business climate in Burma 8 years ago in an op-ed (http://irrawaddy.cc/opinion_story.php?art_id=387). People forget now, but even in the 1990s a lot of Western companies that had invested in Burma were pulling out, such as Pepsi. Some of this was due to boycotts and pressure back home, but much was also due to the poor business climate within Burma. I recall one Burmese lawyer recalling that he’d told a foreigner not to threaten litigation because he could never win in Burma’s court system’ “we (Burmese) know the game,” and foreigners don’t.
This in my mind is why Burma isn’t quite like Vietnam, as Senator Jim Webb seems to think. Vietnam had already started reforming by 1986, years before West lifted sanctions. Not only had it become an attractive business destination, but the government in Hanoi had already demonstrated it was committed to reform. By contrast, Burma has yet to enact its doi moi.
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