Ron Graham is a political author and journalist who has been a close observer of Myanmarese affairs for 25 years.
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It's difficult to think of much that the Harper government got right in the area of foreign policy – but it deserves credit for at least one successful initiative: Myanmar.
While embassies elsewhere were being sold off for a quick buck and overseas budgets slashed, Canada in 2013 appointed its first resident ambassador to the country formerly known as Burma, and set up a political, trade and development office in Yangon (formerly Rangoon), once the capital and still the country's economic hub.
The moves, made along with similar ones by a host of countries, were to reward the military regime for opening up the democratic process after five decades of brutal rule – and to help prevent any sudden reversals. The lifting of economic sanctions also presented new trade and investment opportunities for Canadian companies in this resource-rich country of 53 million people strategically located between India and China.
Reform has been a slow, often frustrating process of two steps forward, one step back. The generals retain control of three key ministries and 25 per cent of the seats in parliament under the 2008 constitution. Cronyism and corruption continue unabated. Activists and journalists are still being imprisoned on the flimsiest of charges. Civil war carries on in pockets of the hinterland. And a populist Buddhism has fuelled a deplorable persecution of the Muslim minority.
Yet Myanmar is, on the whole, a good-news story. Hundreds of political prisoners were freed. Nobel prize-laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was released from years of house arrest.
Her party, the National League for Democracy, triumphed in a fair and peaceful general election last November. And though a constitutional provision currently bars Ms. Suu Kyi from being president, she has declared her intent to run the government "above" her hand-picked nominee, Htin Kyaw, after his inauguration, expected April 1.
Despite its comparatively small staff and paltry resources, Canada's delegation played a useful role in the transition, conducting workshops about ethnic minorities and democracy, funding human-rights groups and documentary filmmakers, and monitoring the vote. Our ambassador, Mark McDowell, leveraged his knowledge of Asia and his personal connections into respect and good will.
But now is not the time to declare mission accomplished. On the contrary, the next couple of years may prove even more crucial for Myanmar's stability.
The learning curve for the young, inexperienced government will be exceptionally steep. The people's expectations for rapid progress are unrealistically high. Keeping the military in check will remain a perilous challenge. Almost every sector of society will have to be modernized before jobs and investment can really take off.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's new government should recommit Canada to helping Myanmar. And that, in the short term, requires only three relatively simple, relatively inexpensive actions.
First, the government should ask Ambassador McDowell to remain in his post for at least another year. Rotating him out of Yangon solely to satisfy a departmental formula would cost Canada hard-won ground at this important juncture.
Second, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Dion, should instruct his officials to concentrate on the areas of most pressing need – which just happen to be the areas of our greatest expertise: human rights, the rule of law, administrative reform, democratic institutions, peacemaking, and especially the devolution of power and resource revenues through a constitutional federalism.
There is little point in spending millions of dollars on trade programs and infrastructure projects when, for a fraction of the cost, the Canadian embassy's political section can make a significant contribution to the good government that will make trade and development sustainable.
Third, Mr. Trudeau should make an official visit to the new government of Myanmar a diplomatic priority. Showing up near the end of a long queue of world leaders would hardly be an affirmation of Canada's wish to engage.
Myanmar now offers one of those rare opportunities when the successful pursuit of our national interest isn't best served by guns and money, but by ideas and finesse.