On his 2012 Heal-the-Planet Tour yesterday, Barack Obama – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in tow – made an historic visit to Burma – aka Myanmar. Enthusiastic crowds welcomed the president, one banner proclaiming: “You are the legend hero of our world.” Indeed.
 
 
The Democratic Voice of Burma wasn’t quite so enamored. Last Friday they were wondering;

Is (Obama) ready to say that the Burmese need to continue to struggle for democracy and fight against the dictators in disguise?
Will he call the country “Myanmar” – the name bestowed on the country by the illegitimate military rulers?

 
Yes, yes he will:

In a notable detour from U.S. policy, the president referred to the nation as Myanmar in his talks with President Thein Sein. That is the name preferred by the former military regime and the new government, rather than Burma, the old name and the one favored by democracy advocates and the U.S. government.
 
Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said afterward that Obama’s use of Myanmar was “a diplomatic courtesy” that doesn’t change the U.S. position that the country is still Burma.

[Source: USA Today]

Oh, well, OK then.
 
Here was the Democratic Voice of Burma’s rightly skeptical view of the pending event:

The happiest lot in Burma ahead of US President Barack Obama’s historic visit to the country will be the ex-generals who have continued ruling the country behind the veneer of reforms. The ruling elites have been waiting for this moment since they came into power nearly two years ago. The US’s approval of the country’s reform process has been one of the core political objectives that the regime has tried to secure since transitioning into power…
 
…If President Obama’s trip to Burma signals that the US’s renewed relations with Burma will include providing the Burmese’s military and intelligence forces with support, then the US has taken a disturbing pivot in its relations with Burma and the region.

Since 1948 Burma has experienced ongoing civil unrest and conflict between various ethnic groups. Human rights violations are frequent and continuing, despite the change in national leadership last May. As Compass Direct reported on May 2nd;

Amid global euphoria over reforms in Burman-majority parts of Burma, life has changed little for more than 3 million Christians and other minorities left to suffer from one of the world’s longest running civil wars.

Open Doors currently ranks the country 33rd on their World Watch List of religious persecution ~

Burma transitioned to a new, semi-civilian government in March, stirring hopes for significant change, including the re-admission of Aung San Suu Kyi into the political arena. A new Human Rights Commission was established in September, with minorities represented on it. It remains to be seen how independently it will operate. However, pressure on Christians from society and the military appears unchanged. There were several reports of the army harassing Christians of the Kachin tribe. In November a bomb killed 7 children and 3 Kachin people at an orphanage run by Christians.

Prior to the Burma visit Christian Solidarity Worldwide had appealed to the president to stand up for religious freedom ~

CSW urges President Obama to press the Burmese government to intervene decisively to end the violence in Rakhine and Kachin states and allow unhindered access for international aid and humanitarian assistance to the affected areas. A peace process and political dialogue between the government and ethnic nationalities must be established in ethnic states where there are ongoing conflicts. Religious freedom is also a concern in the predominantly Christian Chin State, where the Chin are often discriminated against or ill-treated on the dual basis of ethnicity and religion. A recent report by the Chin Human Rights Organisation outlined a decades-long pattern of religious freedom violations, including more than 40 separate incidents of torture or ill-treatment.

Don’t hold your breath folks. This is not an administration that’s big on defending religious liberty…
Consider the HHS (Obamacare) mandate for employer-funded sterilization, contraception and abortiafacients.
And earlier this year the State Department quietly removed the sections covering religious freedom from its Country Reports on Human Rights ~

For the first time ever, the State Department simply eliminated the section of religious freedom in its reports covering 2011…
 
…Thus, the reports do not provide in-depth coverage of what has happened to Christians and other religious minorities in predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East that saw the rise of revolutionary movements in 2011 in which Islamist forces played an instrumental role.

No, this is an administration that believes if reality doesn’t fit your ideology, simply airbrush the facts out.
 
In the make-believe land of ObamaWorld, now that peace and harmony have come to the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring, this latest diplomatic outreach and lecture tour – or whatever it’s supposed to be – will help promote more of the same in Asia ~

“I am not somebody who thinks that the United States should just stand on the sidelines and not want to get its hands dirty when there is an opportunity for us to encourage the better impulses inside the country,” said President Obama, according to a report in the AFP.

[Source: Democratic Voice of Burma]

 

 
It doesn’t appear that Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi finds such lofty rhetoric very “encouraging.”
 
I’m thinking she looks downright disconcerted with the phoney “Legend Hero” act.
 
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Obama always seems happiest when he’s out of the country doesn’t he? Wish he would stay there!