Once upon a time I got an unexpected tax rebate. I spent it on a flight to Burma and my trip was memorable for several wildly different reasons. Firstly, I had a brief delicious love affair with a Burmese motorbiker- and then, I was on the streets when Aung San Suu Kyi was elected to parliament and almost lost my voice cheering (this was back in 2012). I’ll also never forget seeing Bumese rock group Iron Cross thrashing guitars in a Yangon public park performance in front of thousands. We danced and passed round bottles of Burmese whiskey (not bad actually). It was the best use of a tax rebate I could ever think of.
Five years later, in 2017, Suu Kyi, then political saint of the ‘international community,’ was State Counsellor to the Junta-dominated national government. She plunged from her global pedestal later that year after refusing to acknowledge mass slaughter, rape and displacement of thousands of Burmese Rohingya Muslims. Suu Kyi’s autocracy tendancies had long been evident; she never appointed a political deputy, and consistently failed to advocate for the rights of Burma’s many ethic peoples. Her anti-Rohingya stance was a logical extension of these hardline traits. She also aligned herself closely with the junta generals, and they played her. After the brutal coup d’état in February 2021, they convicted her on trumped up charges and locked her up. Probably for the rest of her life.
From Burma to Ukraine
Which somehow brings me to Volodymyr Zelensky, current darling of the same international community (by which I mean the UK, Western Europe, the US and the political allies we have left). About a week ago, Zelensky went to an Arab League summit in the Arabian Red Sea city of Jeddah. He challenged Arab leaders about “Turning a blind eye” to Russia’s war in Ukraine and urged them to ‘take an honest look’ at the war. The exception, it seems, is none other than Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) whom Zelensky personally thanked for supporting Ukraine’s “territorial integrity”. Afterwards, Zelensky posed for photos shaking hands with MBS as the Saudi crown prince grinned demonically. This, remember, is the man responsible for Jamal Khashoggi being strangled, decapitated and dismembered in Instanbul in October 2018. Meanwhile, the league just welcomed another killer guest back into their fold, Syria’s Bashar al Assad
It’s easy to say this handshake was nothing more than hard-nosed political pragatism. That Zelensky needs to put his own people first. I’ve heard this justifying rhetoric before in different contexts, many times. I’ve worked on advocacy to resolve international conflicts, I understand the principles of diplomacy including dialogue with belligerents – and I’ve spent time in Ukraine since the war. The sight of Zelensky cosying up to MBS still made me feel queasy.
Suave international thug
You have to pick your political partners carefully, and never more so than in time of war. But MBS and his autocratic misogynist theocracy are responsible for many more deaths than Jamal Khashoggi. Saudis’ tentacles extend to Yemen, Sudan and Syria. Saudi has one of the highest death penalty rates in the world, including for ‘witchcraft’ – and it has doubled since MBS came to full power in 2015. He is widely recognised as an international criminal and a suave policial thug. Want to see tourism-washing in extremis? Here’s Saudi’s glitzy new strategy.
Shaking hands with Zelensky is great qudos for MBS. But for Zelensky, beyond the horrible optics of taking MBS’s outstretched sweaty hand, an awkward question lingers. Is he actually the one turning ‘a blind eye’, to Saudi Arabias’ ongoing mass abuses? And how does that hypocrisy help Zelensky bring other parties beyond the usual suspects towards his side? For all Zelensky’s PR slickness, I think this is political naivety. It risks being kicked back in his face in the future. To be clear, I’m not comparing his Ukrainian presidency with Suu Kyi’s merciless autocracy that no doubt precipitated her downfall. Zelensky is for example now cleaning up Ukraine’s notorious levels of corruption, which is forward thinking for eventual state rebuilding. But the pitiful endstory of Burma’s ‘Lady’ now in languishing in solitary confinement for the next 33 years, reminds us that international saints are never as perfect as we need them to be, and they need to heed with whom they align themselves. So, what does MBS want from Ukraine?
Endnote: it’s considered old-fashioned these to say ‘Burma’ not Myanmar now; but as Suu Kyi once pointed out, the military junta changed the name just because they felt like it, so I’m sticking with Burma.
