Focus on Burma first, Razali told

Focus on Burma first, Razali told

Jan 28 (Roshan Jason) - Razali Ismail, the United Nations Special Envoy to Burma for the past five years, has been told to attend to the urgent task of mediating the crisis in the military regime, where much still needs to be done, instead of embarking on another crusade.

Appointed two days ago as Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s special envoy for the tsunami disaster aid and assistance programme, Razali will now helm the country’s long-term external assistance to affected nations.

He will also be required to spearhead a global fund raising initiative for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of places reduced to rubbles by the killer waves.

However, detractors are calling on the Malaysian government, and Razali in particular, to first fulfil their moral obligations to restore peace and democracy in Burma, which has been under military rule since 1962.

“We call upon them to set right their priorities. The international community has long been waiting for an end to the Burmese deadlock,” Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) information chief Tian Chua said in a statement today.

Over the years, the UN envoy has made more than a dozen trips to Rangoon but has failed to bring the military junta to the negotiation table, or even press for the freedom of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.

Chua said Razali's current delivery of nominal resolutions to the Burmese stalemate does not constitute for him to lead similarly necessary negotiations in other countries.

Heavy responsibility

Razali, Malaysia’s former permanent representative to the UN, will now be required to diplomatically confront civil wars and political crises in Sri Lanka and Aceh - the two largest tsunami affected nations - while still leading the Burmese mission.

“It is clearly too heavy a responsibility for Razali to be assigned a task involving mediating peace in so many fronts,” said Chua.

The prime minister is reported to have said he appointed Razali based on confidence in his extensive experience in serving global causes at regional and international levels.

“One assumes that this was a reference to his role as special envoy to Burma. Without having presented a viable outcome there, it is difficult to have confidence that he will be able to effectively fulfill the new roles in Aceh and Sri Lanka,” pointed out the PKR leader.

Razali, who is also Yayasan Salam - a non-profit organisation that promotes volunteer services - chairperson, said he first plans to travel to Aceh and renew links with his “friends outside Malaysia” to secure funds.

While agreeing that the proposed tsunami effort and Malaysia’s commitment to the aid work is necessary, Chua urged for a “more suitable and less burdened candidate” to be appointed instead.

Business interest

Rights groups have also, in the past, slammed the UN and Razali for not making progress in Burma while taking the special envoy to task for his business interests in the poverty-stricken land.

Razali’s company - Iris Technologies – manufactures electronic smart cards which the Burmese junta has purchased.

Burma - officially called Myanmar by the ruling military government - is deemed internationally as a military dictatorship that imprisons and kills pro-democracy campaigners and opposition politicians.

Democracy icon Suu Kyi, whose political party secured a landslide victory in Burma’s 1990 general election, has been subjected to years of detention and her party banned from taking power.

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