DECEMBER 22, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 50 | SEARCH ASIAWEEK

Letters
A Better Thing?: 'By leaving Myanmar and going into exile, Aung San Suu Kyi may be able more effectively to keep her cause under the international spotlight and to build support for it.' — EDITORIALS, Dec. 15

There will not be a political settlement in Burma until Gen. Ne Win or Aung San Suu Kyi leaves the political scene. Since Gen. Ne Win is 89 years old and showing his age, there is no need for Suu Kyi to leave ["Myanmar Rethink," EDITORIALS, Dec 15]. As for your comment on sanctions, Ferdinand Marcos and Suharto were perfect examples that trading and investing with dictators does not lead to economic and political freedoms, but to crony capitalism and more repression. You inferred that trading and investing by foreigners precipitated these freedoms in Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and China. Generally, businessmen and investors do not like to rock the boat. The changes in these countries were precipitated by the tens of thousands of students who returned home after studying in America. In Burma's case, the return home of the military intelligence officers (most of them college graduates) who have been assigned to embassies abroad will be the cancer that destroys the military dictatorship.
Myint Thein
Senior Adviser to the Burmese Resistance
Dallas, Texas

On Being 25
I was inspired by "Tales of Youth," your feature about the successes of people in my generation ["Youth Power!" COVER STORY, Nov. 24]. I hope that in deciding what's best for their countries, government administrators will take us into consideration. Sad to say, there are still countries that put priority on defense and arms rather than focus on molding youth. Whatever is inculcated in us is the indication of things to come.
Theoben Jerdan C. Orosa
political science student
University of the Philippines

Your map "Spot the Change" ["Asia's Rise," Nov. 24] failed to mention Taiwan in the data comparisons between 1975 and 2000. Are you that sensitive about offending Beijing?
Philip Lawlor
Kuala Lumpur

Taiwan wasn't included because our sources for the data were organizations in which it's not a member — the United Nations, International Monetary Fund and World Bank. So the data wasn't available. Vietnam, too, was missing, says reader P. Arangasamy of Thanjavur, South India. In this case there was no data because Vietnam was divided in 1975. — The editors

Mao and the Market
"The End of Politics" [EDITORIALS, Nov. 24], in which you discuss the transition from Mao to the market, is puzzling. It refers to your ranking of businessman Li Ka-shing as the most powerful person in Asia. Yet in "Master of Guanxi" [Nov. 3], you note that Li's connections, including his relationship with Beijing, are the key to his power. You maintain that the new generation is more focused on economics. Yet it has been claimed that Li's son Richard benefited from a special relationship with Beijing to win Hong Kong's Cyberport project. Clearly, the difference is not the shift from politics to economics, but the changing relationship between the two. For many businesspeople, relationships with political decision-makers remain central to their success.
David MacDuff
Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada
Vancouver

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