Interview With Kim Ghattas of BBC
Interview
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Rangoon, Burma
December 2, 2011
QUESTION: Madam Secretary, thank you very much for talking to the BBC.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you, Kim.
QUESTION: As usual, we’re very delighted to be here with you in Burma. It’s very special for the BBC to be in the country.
I
wanted to start by asking you about your meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi.
You’ve said that she is an inspiration to you. She has talked about the
fact that she’s read your book. What was it like? What did it feel like
when you finally came face to face?
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Kim, it felt very familiar, and perhaps because I certainly have
followed her over the years and have communicated with her directly and
indirectly. So it was like seeing a friend you hadn’t seen for a very
long time even though it was our first meeting. And it was also
incredibly emotional and gratifying to see her free from the many years
of house arrest and to see her once again leading her party and standing
for elections in this new democratic process they are trying to put
into place. So it was, for me, a great honor and a delight to spend time
with her.
QUESTION: She sounded quite positive,
cautiously so perhaps, but positive about the path towards reform that
this country seems to be embarking on. Are you on the same page?
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, I think it’s important for those of us on the outside, whether
we’re in government or in an NGO or a human rights activist, to
appreciate how it looks from the inside. And certainly, her perspective
is there are signs of change, that there is a rhetorical commitment to
reform. I think it’s very wise of her to take advantage of that, to do
everything she can to support it because, as in any transition, as this
one could very well be, there are those who are pushing reform, and
there are those who are dead set against it, and then there are probably
the most people in the middle trying to gauge which way they should
jump. So anything that can be done which legitimates the reformist
tendencies should be, in her view, and I agree with this, validated and
encouraged. But at the same time, you have to see continuing actions.
It’s not enough just to give a speech or to do a few things. There has
to be a momentum behind reform, and we’re waiting and watching for that.
QUESTION:
You’re obviously coordinating quite closely with Aung San Suu Kyi in
terms of America’s own engagement, reengagement with Burma. Do you run
the risk that you’re basing your whole policy just on one person?
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, of course we’re not. We are closely coordinating with her, but
with many others. We’ve had high-level visits to Burma for nearly two
and a half years, because when I became Secretary of State, I said we
needed a Burma review, that I wasn’t satisfied with what our policy had
produced, which was, frankly, not very much.
And in the course of
the last two and a half years, we’ve had more than 20 high-level visits.
And whether it’s our Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell or our Special
Representative Derek Mitchell, they’ve met people across society – a lot
of the representatives of the ethnic nationalities, a lot of civil
society members, a lot of government members. So we’ve had a good sense
of where people were.
So, yes, of course, it was critical that we
closely coordinated with Aung San Suu Kyi, but she was not the only
person we were working with. And uniformly led by her, we were
encouraged to engage. And as she said publicly, she appreciated what the
United States was doing, and we all hope that it can continue.
QUESTION:
She said that she will run in the parliamentary by-elections that are
coming in the next few months. Do you think that she runs the risks of
being absorbed by the system? Is it perhaps better for her to continue
leading the call for reform from the outside?
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, of course, that’s her decision, and I totally respect what she
has decided. And I think from her perspective, it’s important to
validate the political process. And the only way to do that is to ensure
there is as much participation as possible. Her deciding to run sends a
very important signal to others as well that this is worth doing.
Because if all the people who have a deep, abiding commitment to
democracy decided it was better to stay on the sidelines – because after
all, getting involved in politics anywhere is a messy business, as I
know from my own experience – then you would leave that to perhaps those
whose commitment to reform and democracy are not as deep as they should
be.
I think as a member – an elected member of parliament, she
would have an important role to play, because she’s the one who has read
deeply and thought deeply about how do you actually do this. And when I
was meeting with members and leaders of the parliament, it was very
clear they’re seeking advice. They wanted all kinds of ideas about how
do you run an elected body. And so I think she is following through on
what she believes to be her responsibility to the future.
QUESTION: Did you give her political advice about how to run?
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, she, I think, is more than capable of doing that on her own, but
we did discuss how challenging the political process can be.
QUESTION:
Now, you had other meetings here in the country up in the capital in
Nay Pyi Taw. You met with the country’s civilian president, Thein Sein.
He’s a former junta leader. What were your impressions of him? Because
you did come here to try to gauge his intentions. Is he really serious
about reforming? What were your impressions?
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, I think that certainly what I heard from him and what I heard
from all of the leaders that I met with in Nay Pyi Taw was a stated
commitment to continue the reform process. That’s obviously a first and
important step, but it can’t end there; there has to be a series of
actions that create a momentum toward democracy that cannot be reversed
or undermined.
And I had the impression in speaking with all of
the leaders that they’re well aware of the tensions within their own
government about how far to go, how fast to go. That’s not unusual. But
what I was reminded of is that we have experience in Latin America and
in Asia, even in Africa, where military leaders transition into civilian
leaders, and then create a democratic process which is left for those
who come after them. That’s the hope that I think we all share.
QUESTION: Well, when you, let’s say, looked into his eyes, did you see a real intention for reform?
SECRETARY CLINTON:
I don’t speculate on matters like that. I judge people by their
actions, and there have been some promising actions, but there needs to
be a lot more.
QUESTION: Because indeed, as you
said, there are those who are perhaps sitting on the fence, and you’re
hoping that your visit will encourage the reformers, reinforce their
hands, but also encourage others to join the camp of the reformers. That
is the hope. The risk, of course, is that your visit might give
legitimacy to a government that is desperately seeking it, and then when
you leave, who knows what might happen on the ground. Are you worried
about that?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I can’t
predict what’s going to happen, but I think it certainly is important
for the United States to be on the side of democratic reform, and when
there is such an opening, as we see here, to demonstrate what the
engagement might lead to on behalf of investment in the country and the
like.
I was struck by how everyone I met with from civil society
representing the ethnic nationalities were all so welcoming of
engagement. I mean, people who – and it’s not just whom I met, but the
stories and reports I’ve received from all of my team, people who had
just gotten out of prison who said, “Thank you so much for engaging.”
Well, how can we have less of a willingness to try to move this forward
than the people inside the country who have suffered because of the
repression? So I think it certainly is the right thing to do, but we’re
not making any long-term commitment. This is a first date, not a
marriage, and we’ll see where it leads.
QUESTION: So where are we going next? North Korea? Cuba?
SECRETARY CLINTON:
No. I think that if they ever had a leader who did things like begin
releasing political prisoners and – on a wide scale and set up a system
for elections and the like, then we’d think about it. But right now,
we’re focused on what we could see happening here.
QUESTION: Madam Secretary, thank you very much for talking to the BBC.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you, Kim.
QUESTION: Thank you.
