海角大神

President Thein Sein, the former general now spearheading a political聽and economic liberalization drive in Myanmar, may have been a senior聽member of the last dictatorial military junta, but he appears to have聽the merit of an open mind.

Exhibit A: The man he named to head his presidential advisory team聽on economic policy, U Myint, is a good friend and ally of Aung San Suu聽Kyi, leader of the opposition and the military鈥檚 most outspoken聽critic. (Ms. Suu Kyi's party says she has won her constituency in today's voting, which would put the Nobel Peace Prize winner in public office for the first time.)聽

Mr. U Myint is a member of a nine person panel that is playing a聽key role in greasing the wheels of reforms underway for the past year聽by forging the sort of link between the rulers and the ruled that聽Myanmar has not known for half a century. Three deal with economic聽issues, three with political affairs, and three with legal matters.

The nexus that they have created between civil society and the聽government was on dramatic display last September, when President聽Thein Sein announced the suspension of work on a $3.6 billion Chinese聽project to build a dam at Myitsone, in northern Myanmar.

Environmental groups had been protesting this dam, in the聽watershed of the Irrawaddy river, for a long time. As censorship聽relaxed under the quasi-civilian government that took office a year聽ago, the environmentalists found journalists ready to write about the聽studies they had done. Public opinion turned against the dam.

Thein Sein has a team reading the local and international press for聽him, and keeping him abreast of the public mood. But the anti-dam聽forces鈥� trump card was U Myint, and they took their case to him.

鈥淯 Myint has connections with the people and access to the聽president,鈥� says Kyaw Thu, a civil society activist who coordinated a聽campaign by anti-dam environmental groups. 鈥淣ow we have a new聽mechanism that has opened up access to people high up, in parliament聽and in government.鈥�

If it was a bold move by the president to invite U Myint to direct聽economic policy reform, it was equally bold of U Myint to accept the聽job. He did so, he said at the time, without knowing how much聽influence he would have, but in the spirit of national reconciliation聽鈥� a leitmotif of Aung San Suu Kyi鈥檚 campaign for a seat in parliament聽at the by-elections being held today.

Not all the presidential advisers have such an independent聽background; the head of the legal team is a police colonel, and the top聽political adviser, Ko Ko Hlaing, is a former army officer who was聽working on an international news show at the state-run TV channel when聽he was tapped for his new job. But all of them are seen as聽reform-minded, most have enough international experience to know how聽things are done in countries that are not military dictatorships, and聽several of them are happy to talk both to the media and to nongovernmental organizations.

In the old days of a hermetically sealed military government聽鈥渘o one had access to the senior General,鈥� says Kyaw Thu. 鈥淭oday, our聽arguments reach the president.鈥�

* Editor's Note: Our correspondent in Yangon could not be identified for security reasons.聽