Road Trip

Aung San Suu Kyi just wrapped up her first trip outside Myanmar in 24 years. For most of that time she was under house arrest; when she wasn’t, she worried that she wouldn’t be let back in if she left. For her latest look at the outside world she traveled next door to Thailand. The bulk of her six-day journey was spent visiting Burmese refugees and migrant workers here. Most estimates suggest that the number of paperless people from Burma living in Thailand is over two million.

At a Bangkok forum on the economics of the region, she stole the show with a frank assessment of the investment prospects in Myanmar. She was wise and graceful, generating lots of goodwill, even as she bluntly told investors that for now her pariah country needs education and institutions lots more than it needs business.

Reform in Myanmar remains quite delicate, as democratization is bound to be anywhere people are used to solving disputes by pulling rank. Add in a ton of ethnic diversity, and a tidal wave of new outside experts who are suddenly swamping the country with their advice, and you get a spicy stew. As The Lady noted, “I sometimes feel that people are too optimistic about the scene in Burma. You have to remember that the democratization process in Burma is not irreversible.”

ASSK travels again on June 13. Among other places in Europe, she heads to Oslo, where she’ll formally accept the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded in 1991.