Myanmar de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi met with Thai junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha today as the two nations signed pacts of cooperation — a new hope of better working conditions and living standards for Myanmar workers in Thailand.
A memorandum of understanding in labor cooperation and agreements in border crossing and employment of workers were signed at the Government House of Thailand this afternoon as Suu Kyi joined Prayuth Chan-ocha in the first official press conference of her visit.
“The border should not be a line divide, it should be a shared responsibility, a shared trust to both our countries. We have to ensure there is peace and prosperity on both sides of the border,” Suu Kyi said.
As Myanmar’s state counsellor and foreign minister, Suu Kyi’s focus during her three-day visit is on the well-being of her citizens in Thailand. An estimated 1.4 million Myanmar migrants work legally in the kingdom, but millions more are undocumented and often fall into situations of abuse and mistreatment.
After her party rose to power in November elections and formed a cabinet in March, the 71-year-old leader selected Thailand as her first high-profile visit. She was last there several years ago after being freed from house arrest.
To the Myanmar workers in Thailand, her arrival means promises of a better future and, maybe someday, an opportunity to finally go home.
“Of course, what we want is all people displaced from our country to come back to us and come back to the kind of condition they never want to leave again,” Suu Kyi said.
“For this, we have to do a lot of work. It’s not enough to just say ‘Please come back.’ They have to have a home to come back to. They have to have hospitals to take care of them, and most of all, they need work,” Suu Kyi said.
“Everywhere I look in Myanmar, people have talked about their need for a job. If I asked them, ‘What do you want most? The answer is work. Our people want work. Our people need work. They don’t want charity,” she said.
However, the urgent issue of the Rohingya minority was not brought up by the two parties as the press were barred from asking questions this afternoon.
On Thursday, a press conference in Bangkok on the plight of the Muslim Rohingya ended abruptly after Thai authorities put pressure on the human rights groups that organized it.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been criticized in her home country and overseas for her government’s insufficient policies toward the Rohingya people, who face persecution in their country.
Tomorrow the 71-year-old leader was due to make her last stop at Baan Tham Hin, a temporary shelter for Myanmar refugees in Ratchaburi province, but the trip was cancelled due to bad weather.
Suu Kyi’s appearance at Talay Thai market, a seafood hub in Mahachai community, on Thursday gathered thousands of her Burmese supporters but only five-hundred of them were selected to enter the hall.
Text: Prae Sakaowan with additional reporting by Shlatsorn Maisakuldee
Photos: Pai Chanikarn
