S'pore's Lee criticises Burma's military rulers

SINGAPORE, Jan 8 (Reuters/AFP)

Singapore's elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew has criticised Burma's military junta, saying decisions such as the building of a new capital from scratch were irrational, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Lee, speaking at a dinner hosted by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies on Monday, also said the military rulers were "people with very fixated minds - quite convinced that they will have the natural resources to weather any sanctions." and said he has given up trying to solve the Burma problem.

The junta is under unprecedented international pressure to move toward political reform following its crackdown of pro-democracy protests last year.

But Lee, Singapore's first prime minister and father of current premier Lee Hsien Loong, said that the Association of South East Asian Nations had little influence over the junta.

"I mean new capital from ground zero, what I ask myself, what rational government would do this," Lee, was quoted as saying by the Straits Times.

Singapore leaders have been critical of Burma but have stuck to the ASEAN policy of non-interference in members' domestic affairs.

Lee said he has not met with members of the junta since pro-reform prime minister General Khin Nyunt was replaced in 2004.

"I decided the one reasonably open mind to whom I could talk has been closed," Lee told a gathering to mark the 40th anniversary of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

"The members of ASEAN who could influence them will be Thailand, and beyond China and India. The rest of us -- we are a kind of background muzak," he said, using a slang for elevator music.

Western governments and activists have criticised the 10-member ASEAN for failing to do more to pressure the Burmese junta to improve its human rights record.

Burma moved its capital city from Yangon to Nay Pyi Taw, about 240 miles to the north of the old capital, in 2005.