Thailand just gave Myanmar what it craved, and it wasn’t humanitarian aid

Singapore: In the week since a 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked Myanmar, the editors of the ruling military’s daily mouthpiece have been onto a theme. It is not the thousands of people dead and dying. It is certainly not the regime’s inability and unwillingness to adequately address an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe.

Rather, the scribes at the grandly named The Global New Light of Myanmar have been feeding junta leader Min Aung Hlaing’s ego while working to convince readers he is respected among foreign leaders.

Myanmar’s junta leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (left) shakes hands with Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Friday.Credit: AP

Thailand Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra last week gave the junta what it most desired from the international community – legitimacy.

Her invitation to Min Aung Hlaing to attend the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Co-operation summit in Bangkok broke with a convention among ASEAN nations to exclude Myanmar’s military leaders from multinational forums.

It is the first time the regime chief has been asked into such a dialogue since the February 2021 coup that ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who is now in prison somewhere in Myanmar.

In a sign of how much the junta was gratified by this turn of events, all but one of the first five pages of Friday’s edition of the New Light were devoted either to Min Aung Hlaing’s presence at the summit or to the condolence messages conveyed to him by North Korea, Mongolia and Malaysia. (Page two covered how readers could help top up regime coffers for ostensible earthquake relief.)

So keen is the deeply unpopular regime to persuade Myanmar’s citizenry of its international standing that the paper ran front-page photos and stories of Min Aung Hlaing on the phone to a foreign leader for three days in a row last week.

And as he rubbed shoulders with geopolitical powerbrokers in Bangkok, his military continued to pound the resistance movement and restrict humanitarian relief efforts from reaching some of the country’s earthquake-affected regions.

This is not a good look for anyone, but Thailand, at least, has a reputation to uphold.

“The Thai government professes to be democratic,” former Thailand foreign minister Kasit Piromya told this masthead, listing the reasons why inviting the general was a mistake.

“Second, Thailand is a member at the moment of the UN Human Rights Council [as of late last year].

“Third, Thailand is committed to the joint decision of the ASEAN leaders not to invite military and political figures of the Myanmar junta to attend any of the official meetings and so on. What the Thai government did is against all the commitments, principles and international norms, ignoring altogether the decency of the international community.”

For good measure, Min Aung Hlaing is accused of crimes against humanity for the deportation and persecution of the Rohingya Muslim ethnic group in the second half of 2017. For this, prosecutors at the International Criminal Court last year sought a warrant for his arrest.

Still, Paetongtarn not only invited Min Aung Hlaing and his offsiders, but she also met with him on the BIMSTEC sidelines. Why? Amid fury from the human rights groups, the government has been quiet about its reasons.

The earthquake was a big topic, surely. Thailand’s The Nation news site reported the pair discussed cross-border crimes, drugs, PM2.5 air pollution and flood-prevention measures – the kinds of things two legitimate heads of state might.

We also know Thailand and Myanmar have been pressured by China to crack down on the human-trafficking trade that is feeding scam compounds on Myanmar’s side of the Moei River border.

Paetongtarn visited Chinese President Xi Jinping in early February and has shown a willingness to work closely with Beijing – the Myanmar regime’s most important backer. Weeks after her visit, she deported to China more than 40 people from the persecuted Uyghur ethnic minority who had been detained in Thailand since 2014.

Meanwhile, the United States, an ally of Thailand, has withdrawn further into its “America First” silo under President Donald Trump.

Min Aung Hlaing’s attendance at BIMSTEC could feasibly be an opportunity for regional leaders to pressure him for a peace process and to allow unfettered humanitarian aid into earthquake-stricken regions.

But this was not how it was being received by the regime’s internal and international opponents. Like The Global New Light of Myanmar, they saw the trip as a victory for Min Aung Hlaing. From the tragedy of the earthquake, the junta appeared to be seizing a public relations and political opportunity to wave in front of citizens wearied by calamity.

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