Speaking at a dinner in honor of visiting Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein late Tuesday, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called the diplomatically isolated nation "an old friend" of Singapore that should "develop and prosper."
"The global environment is changing, with a new administration in the U.S. reviewing the global situation, and formulating its priorities and strategies in foreign policy for the next four years," he said.
Europe is also reassessing its foreign policy, and other countries grappling with the global economic slump are looking at more effective ways to deal with other regions of the world, he said.
"We hope Myanmar will seize this moment to take bolder steps towards national reconciliation and in engaging the international community," Lee said.
The two countries are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, which also includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
A Singapore foreign ministry statement said the Myanmar and Singapore leaders discussed bilateral ties and "potential areas of cooperation and collaboration."
Thein Sein, who holds the rank of general in the Myanmar military, arrived in Singapore on Tuesday for a two-day visit. He had earlier visited Indonesia.
His visit came as Myanmar's opposition National League for Democracy, or NLD, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, reported the arrest of five members and the United Nations chastised Myanmar's rulers for their treatment of dissidents.
Four men and a woman who worked as organizers for the party were arrested last week in the commercial hub and former capital, Yangon, said NLD spokesman Nyan Win.
A report Monday by the top U.N. official handling human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, said many of the more than 2,100 political prisoners held in Myanmar have been sentenced in flawed, closed-door hearings.
Detainees suffered from a lack of medical care during imprisonment and from " physical ill-treatment" during interrogation, said Quintana, who visited Myanmar Feb. 14 to 19 in his capacity as a U.N. special rapporteur.
During the Asean summit in Thailand earlier this month, Myanmar threatened to boycott a meeting with human rights advocates if a Myanmar activist was present. The activist wasn't allowed into the session.
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**********NDA-K ready to surrender arms *******************************
Zahkung Tingying, founder and leader of New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) told to media on Tuesday that they are ready to lay-down their arms if they can be sure that their demands will be fulfilled.
The NDA-K was the first Kachin armed group to reach a cease-fire agreement with Burma’s military junta, the then State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) in 1989.
“We are fighting for our rights, development of our people and if these are guaranteed why do we still need to continue armed struggle?” said Tingying. The rebel leader said this in a tone that suggested that the new elected government would be able to fulfill their demands.
“It is possible that we will surrender our arms but at the same time we need to see that our demands and desires will be fulfilled,” he added.
The Burmese military junta in recent months has stepped up pressure on all cease-fire ethnic armed groups to surrender their arms before the 2010 general elections and urged them to transform into political parties to contest the election, sources said.
But, so far, the junta has been unable to convince any of the ceasefire groups to surrender their arms.
The NDA-K, which claims to be fighting for security, social, economic and educational development of its people, however, said they believe that their hopes would materialize after the elected government assumes office following the 2010 elections.
The NDA-K, which is based in North-eastern Kachin state along the Sino-Burma border, was founded by former Kachin Independent Organization (KIO) officers Zahkung Tingying and Layawk Zelum in 1989.
But sources said, following the ceasefire agreement, the NDA-K has focussed more on business than politics and has not maintained active armed cadres. Militarily and politically, the NDA-K has lost its strength, the source added.
“They are no longer interested in the welfare of the people because they could not take the responsibility of the people. So what they say is not significant,” another source, who has a close relationship with the group, told .
Similarly, a Sino-Burma border based military analyst, Aung Kyaw Zaw, said, the NDA-K lately lacks military power and strength and that it might be possible for them to surrender any time if the junta asks them to.
“They [NDA-K] have only around 300 to 400 soldiers right now. The military regime can compromise them anytime they wish to so it will not be a surprise if they lay-down their arms,” Aung Kyaw Zaw said.
He said the NDA-K was used well by the military government in its efforts to weaken the KIO, which is the major armed group among ethnic Kachin.
NDA-K has appointed five representatives to contest the ensuing election and will represent the group in the political party, which will be formed by representatives of all political and civilians groups in Kachin State.
The political party, which has not been officially announced, would be called the “Kachin State Progressive Party” (KSPP), sources said, and it will contest in the 2010 election as a representative party of the Kachin people.
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