The White House-McConnell talks on Myanmar have borne fruit in another way: barely earning praise from a GOP leader, famous monk, in his opposition to the message.
“On the domestic front, I have not yet seen anything I was happy about,” McConnell (R-Ky.) Said in an interview. ‘But in this area I think their instinct is good. I think they’re trying to do the right thing. ”
Myanmar, also known as Burma, returned to military rule in February after its generals staged a coup against Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government. While Suu Kyi is the most popular politician in Myanmar and retains an incalculably valuable ally in McConnell, she faced criticism for insulting the country’s army of genocide against the Muslim minority – long before the coup took her again under house arrest in Yangon.
The American efforts to restore democracy in Myanmar reflect both the benefit of McConnell’s decades of involvement there and the strange bedfellows of a Democratic president who works smoothly with his biggest political opponent. McConnell’s interest in Myanmar is not known to the general public, but is still a defining aspect of a legacy he has already confirmed on several domestic issues, from the judiciary to the financing of campaigns.
‘Senator McConnell has played a key leadership role in promoting an immediate return to democracy in Burma, ensuring that those responsible for the coup and the devastating violence against civilians are held accountable and that they stand firm with the people. of Burma while peacefully resisting military repression, ”Sullivan said, nodding to the Republican’s efforts over the years.
You will not hear a member of the Biden government praise McConnell so much on virtually any other topic. In a speech in 2019, McConnell famously said: “People do not always expect the man who calls my Democratic colleagues the grim reaper to focus on human rights and the promotion of democracy.”
When McConnell first took note of Myanmar in the early 1990s, it was seen as an obscure fascination with relatively little significance on the world stage – not to mention an area where U.S. lawmakers would find it difficult to push for a difference. do not make.
After Suu Kyi’s party dominated Myanmar’s election in 1990, the military stepped in and placed the longtime Democratic activist under house arrest, where she spent much of the next 20 years. Her rise, which was released in 2010 – and the country’s democratic path – was meteoric: she soon elected her post and in 2016 became her country’s prime minister. McConnell secretly exchanged notes with Suu Kyi while she was at home and visited her in Yangon in 2012 before presenting her in Kentucky the same year.
“He was sometimes frustrated that the White House and the State Department on both sides of the aisle did not always come up with an effective Burma policy,” said Kelley Currie, a former top civil servant who worked closely with McConnell’s staff, said. as an aid worker on Capitol Hill in the 1990s.
“His job is to keep the government focused on action,” Currie added of McConnell. “The most important thing he can do is to continue to keep them focused on the issue and to develop a more aggressive response.”
In recent years, Myanmar has gained a much greater strategic importance to the US as governments of both parties try to thwart the influence of China, a neighboring country. However, conditions on the ground have worsened since senior generals overthrew Suu Kyi in February, even after her party dominated in last year’s election. Leaders of the Myanmar army, known as the Tatmadaw, claimed the election was fraudulent.
Meanwhile, the Tatmadaw organized a brutal action against pro-democracy protesters, killing more than 600 civilians, including dozens of children. The US and allied countries have imposed sanctions on the Myanmar army, but Washington’s policymakers across the region agree that more needs to be done to stop the bloodshed.
‘Americans hate the fact that some problems can only be worked on, and not definitively solved. It’s in our DNA, “said Franklin Huddle, who served as the leading U.S. diplomat in Myanmar from 1990 to 1994.” And that applies a lot to foreign policy. “
Enter McConnell, whose influence over the future of Myanmar has grown along with his power in the US capital. Although he has not spoken directly to Suu Kyi since the coup, a GOP assistant working closely with McConnell on Myanmar said the Senate leader has been in regular contact with the Biden government because he is trying to to restore relative peace in Yangon.
“There is no daylight between McConnell’s position and the position of the Biden administration because it indicates that there is absolute consensus and commitment on this issue,” Robin Cleveland said. He advised McConnell through the 1980s and 1990s on foreign policy and instrumentally as McConnell put it. the original US sanctions against Myanmar. “It is important to continue to draw attention to the horrific and tragic events.”
In a telephone interview with POLITICO on Friday, McConnell called on the Biden government to address the issue at the United Nations Security Council and put China and Russia on the verge of ensuring interest in Myanmar’s fight. does not decrease. McConnell emphasized America’s unique ability to elevate and establish parts of the world where conflicting countries often hope to wait out storms until international interest declines.
“Our ability to influence it halfway around the world is limited,” McConnell said. “But we do have tools.”
“The bulk of the burden is on the state department and the administration,” he added. “But in any case, the congressional action must be part of this: count me in.”
Take care of his ‘pet issue’
McConnell’s 30-year journey over what he calls his ‘pet issue’ began in earnest in 1986 when, shortly after his first Senate election, he openly challenged then-President Ronald Reagan over the White House’s refusal to punish the apartheid government in the South. -Africa.
As former McConnell adviser Cleveland tells it, the then-first-year senator returned to Washington after reading over a weekend in Kentucky about the horrific apartheid conditions in South Africa and telling her that the US should speak out more forcefully against the government there to To support Nelson Mandela, the leader of the opposition.
McConnell then worked with Sens. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) And Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) On a comprehensive plan to drop harsh economic sanctions against South Africa. Reagan vetoed the legislation, but in the fall of 1986 the Senate voted overwhelmingly to override its veto. McConnell said at the time that Reagan was ‘dissatisfied’ and ‘wrong’, adding that he was proud of the vote. (Democrats even called for this this year because they fruitlessly appealed to McConnell’s voice in favor of accusing Donald Trump.)
A few years later, McConnell watched in horror as the military invalidated Suu Kyi’s victory in the 1990 election. From his seat as chair of the Senate Credit Committee’s Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, McConnell later drafted the original economic sanctions package against Myanmar and effectively isolated the country.
“There is a bow in his work,” Cleveland said, recalling that McConnell saw sanctions as “the necessary and right policy approach in South Africa – to actually support an electorate that was not granted. And over time, he became involved because the people of Burma voted and the result was also denied. ”
Others who worked for McConnell at the time, including former top assistant Janet Mullins Grissom, mentioned McConnell’s earlier support for the U.S. civil rights movement and his subsequent work for his mentor, late senator and civil rights supporter John Sherman Cooper (R- Ky.), As living factors.
“It’s the lens through which he saw the apartheid voice,” said Grissom, who also led McConnell’s 1984 senate campaign. “And from there, he begins his work on the side of the good guys and looks at the importance of supporting democracy and human rights around the world.”
Bet on the ‘best hope’
While McConnell has received dual praise over the years for his support of Suu Kyi, he has been criticized for assisting her, even though the United Nations convicted her in 2018 of being a genocide against Rohingya. Muslims in her country.
After the widespread killing and abuse of Rohingya emerged, lawmakers from both parties proposed sanctions on officials in Myanmar who allegedly carried out the atrocities; McConnell blocked the bill, causing anger among colleagues. McConnell insisted that the repression was beyond Suu Kyi’s control, arguing that undermining her government would harm democracy in Myanmar, especially if the country had come this far since its initial military junta.
The then leader of the majority often reminded other senators that Suu Kyi was the ‘best hope’ for a democratic Myanmar. His confidants said his defense of her came from a ‘long view’ of how the country could become a stable democracy.
McConnell’s support for Suu Kyi has from time to time made him ‘one of the most powerful proponents of a principled US policy toward the country,’ “a former State Department official said. And sometimes he is seen as an obstacle because he was reluctant to push Suu Kyi or disagree with her if she herself was on the wrong side. ‘
In turn, McConnell pointed to the most recent military coup as proof that his approach was correct. Suu Kyi should not have been “thrown under the bus” by all of his senate colleagues to world leaders who tried to measure her performance by Western standards, the IDP leader argued.
“I still think today that – and the recent election that led to the coup further proves it – that she is the only one who really follows there,” McConnell said. “There is no other hope for a way forward in Burma other than Aung San Suu Kyi.”