"Part of what we bring to many of these countries is a touch of western culture, to Russia and parts in Eastern Europe, in giving to those people something that is a little bit special. So I do not make any apologies for Burma. I think we should be there, and we will continue to be there."
- Christopher Sinclair,
chairman of Pepsico
Pepsico announced its withdrawal from Burma on Jan. 15, 1997. I celebrated this victory with 375 activists at a conference a colleague and I recently attended, "Burma, The South Africa of the '90s," at American University in Washington, D.C.
For years, these activists were concerned about Pepsico's operations in Burma, a small Southeast Asian nation bordered by India, Thailand, Tibet and China. Pepsico's business gave millions of dollars to the illegitimate regime in power, the State Law and Order Restoration Council.
SLORC gained power in 1988 after massacring four times the number of people killed in Tienanmen Square during student-led demonstrations in Rangoon, an event chronicled in the film Beyond Rangoon.
Condemned by the United Nations and the U.S. government for denying its people basic freedoms, SLORC intimidates its people through rape, torture, forced labor, and the relocation of entire villages.
In 1990, SLORC held elections to appease its detractors. 82 percent of the parliamentary votes went to the National League for Democracy.
SLORC imprisoned, tortured or killed NLD members, annulled the NLD elections, and charged NLD members with "attempting to form a government."
Aung San Suu Kyi is the figurehead of the movement. Daughter of Aung San, a national hero in the independence movement, Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest for six years before being released in 1995. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.
Suu Kyi has asked the world community not to invest in Burma. Some claim "constructive engagement" will civilize SLORC. Yet activists point to South Africa, where they believe economic divestment led to the fall of apartheid.
After visiting Burmese refugees with five other Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in 1993, the Rev. Desmond Tutu concluded, "Only when serious sanctions started to take a significant economic toll on my country did the road to real reform begin. ... Five years of constructive engagement has only given the SLORC confidence to maintain its repressive rule."
In December (around International Human Rights Day), my congressional representative, Tom DeLay, visited SLORC officials with a delegation, but did not meet any NLD members. Call DeLay and ask why he visited officials of a regime that supplies our country with 60 percent of its heroin.
Pepsico pulled out after pressure from letters, demonstrations and university divestment policies, so boycott and write Texaco, Unocal and others with a presence in Burma.
To end, I quote Aung San Suu Kyi, who to this day lives in Rangoon and whose movement is restricted by SLORC: "Until we have a system that guarantees rule of law and basic democratic institutions, no amount of aid or investment will benefit our people."
Wadhwa is co-coordinator of the Free Burma Club at UH.