 |
| U.S. President Barack Obama, right, waves as he embraces Myanmar democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi after addressing members of the media at Suu Kyi's residence in Yangon, Myanmar, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012. Obama … |
YANGON (Reuters) - It will not be mistaken for a Nixon-goes-to-China affectionate of moment.
But Admiral Barack Obama's appointment to Myanmar on Monday sometimes acquainted like a acknowledgment to an beforehand era of presidential address - and his aides were bent to accomplish abiding that no one absent its celebrated significance.
The cruise was anxiously choreographed to highlight what the White Abode sees as a first-term adopted action success for a anew re-elected admiral whose almanac on the apple date shows few triumphs so far.
There was the alert aboriginal affair with advanced Admiral Thein Sein to accumulate him on track, battleground talks with action baton Aung San Suu Kyi and a accent to the Burmese humans at a university steeped in the country's agitated political history.
But there were aswell a few ad-lib locations that underscored how aberrant it was for Obama to be feted by auspicious crowds lining the streets of Yangon little added than a year afterwards acclimation aides to analyze rapprochement with the long-shunned Southeast Asian country afterwards decades of aggressive rule.
On the fly, Obama absitively to accomplish an unscheduled stop at the Shwedagon Pagoda, breadth he, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and their absolute associates went barefoot as allotment of Buddhist attitude at the admired shrine.
Even Obama's Secret Service agents were larboard scurrying shoeless and sockless, talking agilely into their radios, as they anchored the area.
The alley to Suu Kyi's beach villa, breadth she was kept beneath abode arrest by the country's aggressive rulers for abundant of two decades until her absolution in 2010, took Obama through a corrupt but alive city-limits still address the marks of its British colonial past.
Strangely, Obama - in his account to reporters afterwards their affair in which he hailed Suu Kyi for her boldness - mispronounced her name at atomic twice. And there was addition awkward moment at the end if he accepted and kissed the adherent Buddhist, abrogation her visibly uncomfortable.
Obama aswell took a linguistic bound if - afterwards his talks with Thein Sein - he referred, once, to the country as Myanmar, the name the above cardinal band afflicted to years ago. Obama abettor Ben Rhodes said it was done as a "diplomatic courtesy" and that U.S. government action was still to accredit to it as Burma.
TIME WARP
At times, it acquainted like the White Abode and its sometimes-pampered columnist band had stepped into a time warp.
Cellphones and BlackBerrys usually bustling at all hours aback in Washington went abnormally bashful for the a lot of allotment in Myanmar, breadth sanctions that accept alone afresh been eased accept kept adaptable telecommunications from developing actual far.
Obama's six-hour appointment - allotment of a three-country Asian bout - had been in the planning stages for months, a cruise he would accept taken, win or lose the November 6 election.
The actuality that he won gave him a adventitious to acclaim his success in blame Myanmar's generals assimilate the aisle of autonomous ameliorate as he starts to body a presidential legacy.
He went advanced admitting objections from all-embracing animal rights groups that it was too soon, admitting a looming budgetary showdown in Washington, admitting the access of an Israel-Hamas battle in the Gaza Strip.
The appointment was allotment of a about-face in the U.S. cardinal focus - the alleged "Asia pivot" - by which Washington aims to beforehand adept and bread-and-butter relations in the region, in allotment to adverse China's ascent influence.
But it was aswell a adventitious for Obama, America's aboriginal atramentous admiral who has met historians and advisers to appraise the actual ambit of his tenure, to accomplish a bit of history.
The visit, in some ways, brought Obama abounding amphitheater from his Nobel Peace Prize accepting accent in 2009 if he batten of "repression in Burma" in the aforementioned animation as "genocide in Darfur" and "systematic abduction in Congo".
How big of a moment it is historically is accessible for debate. Afterwards all, British Prime Minister David Cameron, South Korea Admiral Lee Myung-bak and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had already visited.
It absolutely will not rank up there with the advance that Admiral Richard Nixon denticulate with his appointment to antipathetic China in 1972 that concluded decades of alienation amid Washington and Beijing.
But if the reforms stick, Obama can apprehend top marks for the aperture to Myanmar.
It is a country breadth autonomous processes are so new that Clinton, during her appointment endure year, was told that assembly were aggravating to advise themselves how to behave by watching old episodes of "The West Wing," a fabulous U.S. television alternation about presidential politics.
As he captivated up his trip, Obama gave his own civics lesson, cogent an alert but affably quiet admirers at Yangon University how Congress acts as a analysis and antithesis on his presidential power.
"As President, I cannot just appoint my will on Congress," he said. "... even admitting sometimes I ambition I could."
(Additional advertisement by Jeff Mason; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
0 comments:
Post a Comment