LOS ANGELES -- Fleeting images can become perceived realities. For example, images viewed positively by the American public allow U.S. political leaders to unlock foreign-aid funds -- and business leaders to go forward with ambitious foreign-investment schemes. From this perspective, Myanmar, long-spurned by American human rights groups, seems to have advanced one step forward recently, and China, long wooed by U.S. business, looks to have lost a troubling step.
Myanmar's hated military regime -- known as the State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC -- is seen as not merely brutal and repressive but also manifestly incompetent. Myanmar's economy is almost as moribund as that of North Korea, the current prevailing standard of gross national nonproduct.
But Myanmar's public image could change dramatically with the long-awaited release of the majestically serene Suu Kyi from house arrest and political isolation earlier this month. This fearless prodemocracy leader offers her countrymen a realistic new hope that Myanmar's days of darkness are numbered. Suu Kyi, now emerging from 19 dreary months of home confinement, vigorously vows to be more than a political symbol and will instead push for the transformation of her country into a robust democracy.