KEY POINTS:
New Zealand has strongly condemned the Myanmar military junta's brutal crackdown, but words are not enough.
Aung San Suu Kyi and the pro-democracy movement have been calling for foreign companies not to invest in Myanmar - formerly Burma - because of the role foreign investment plays in perpetuating the dictatorship.
Given its totalitarian hue, the regime either directly controls or takes a cut from most economic activity. So you can't do business with the country without doing business with the regime.
The New Zealand Government downplays its bilateral links with Myanmar and emphasises that imports and exports are not on a large scale. While this is true, we should stop importing Myanmar's products - especially furniture made from rainforest teak, which is prevalent in Auckland.
It is important also to look below the surface at New Zealand's full range of links with Myanmar, which effectively serve to legitimise the regime.
As a Dialogue Partner, New Zealand has a substantive relationship with the 10 Asean nations, including Myanmar.
Motivated by prospects of trade advantages and perceived regional security advantages, New Zealand has been content to overlook Asean's dark side - its member nations' woeful lack of commitment to human rights.
Take Indonesia for example. There has been no accounting for the military's crimes in East Timor, but defence ties have recently been resumed.
The Asean relationship engenders some sharp ironies. While Myanmar Government officials can access New Zealand aid to come here to learn English, political prisoners are cruelly punished if they are found in possession of an English dictionary.
As a Dialogue partner, New Zealand is assigned an Asean member buddy or co-ordinator, and for the period 2006-2009 our co-ordinator is Myanmar-Burma. So our diplomats have direct channels to their counterparts in that country, and jointly hosted meetings are on the schedule for later in the year.
Last May, 10 Myanmar religious leaders were treated to a lavish welcome as guests at the Waitangi Interfaith Dialogue meeting called Building Bridges. If the leaders took back a message of religious tolerance, it clearly went unheeded.
Latest reports, smuggled from the country, describe monks being disrobed, beaten, imprisoned and even killed for their role in peaceful protests.
Perhaps the most egregious links of all are the New Zealand Superannuation Fund investments in the French oil giant Total and other Asian oil companies which have operations in Myanmar.
Total has a joint venture project with the regime to develop an offshore gas field in the Andaman Sea and pipe the gas over 60 kilometres to Thailand.
Total, the fourth largest oil company in the world, has been a focus of campaigns around the world since it began business in Myanmar in 1992. According to Aung San Suu Kyi, Total is the key financial mainstay of the regime.
The exploitation of natural gas is Myanmar's largest source of export earnings, and these foreign dollars account for the regime's ability to purchase sophisticated military equipment.
The New Zealand Super Fund, which invests over $18 million of our taxpayer funds in Total, has attracted controversy for investments in so-called sin stocks. These include nuclear weapons manufacturers and mining giants such as Freeport McMoran which is laying waste to mountains, forests and wetlands in West Papua.
I recently led a delegation of non-governmental organisations to meet representatives of the Super Fund's board and executive staff. They told us that the Super Fund is committed to the international principles for responsible investment as set out in a UN Global Compact.
But these principles state that businesses should support internationally proclaimed human rights, and take a precautionary approach to environmental challenges.
However, the crucial issue right now is sanctions. Other countries, including France, are calling for an end to investments in Myanmar, so New Zealand should play its part and help to cut off the lifeblood of a brutal regime. When they are implemented on an international scale, economic sanctions do make a difference (note how the economic sanctions imposed on South Africa forced the abandonment of apartheid by cutting off the regime's economic lifeblood).
Time is running out. New Zealand should review its ties to Myanmar immediately and impose effective and comprehensive sanctions on the junta.* Maire Leadbeater is spokeswoman for the Indonesia Human Rights Committee, Auckland.
