The release of Aung San Suu Kyi

I don’t really know what people are expecting from the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. She leaves her house to enter a country still under the grip of the generals. They can even say that there has recently been an election, which they have won. Despite several foreign leaders having stated publicly that it was rigged, this may still carry some weight inside the country, which doesn’t have a free press either, and in China, which doesn’t have free elections either. India has already said that it accepts the result, an astonishing thing for a democracy to say, in particular one which aspires to positions on the world stage.

But if India and China have not covered themselves with glory in this matter, nor has the west. We saw fit to invade Afghanistan and Iraq because we were unhappy about what was going on there, leaving Aung San Suu Kyi to her fate. I once heard her, in one of the few interviews she has given, being quite disparaging about the West. She doesn’t like the consumerism and profit motive which drive us.

So when Western leaders queue up to be photographed with her, as they did with Mandela, they may find some reluctance. She will know why they are doing it and may not be interested in what we have to offer.

Myanmar: no hope

In Myanmar, or Burma as most people think of it, it is Aung San Suu Kyi's 65th birthday.

She was married to the late Dr Michael Aris, the Tibetan specialist, and was not even able to go to her husband's funeral. As such she is, I suppose, jointly or optionally British, and yet she has been imprisoned for years without our doing anything.

Readers of this blog who fail to understand why we felt able to invade Iraq, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone but not Burma will not find much of an answer here. The regime in Rangoon is maintained by India and China. Whilst the Indians have stopped actually selling arms to Rangoon the Chinese haven't, and both have strong commercial ties which keep the money flowing.

President Obama has said Aung San Suu Kyi ought to be released, and I expect he felt better afterwards. It won't help the people of Burma. That would require standing up to China. And Obama won't do that.

Change hasn't come to Burma.