G

en. (ret) Thein Sein, who won international praise for leading reforms in Myanmar, received a warm welcome from US President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday. It was a reciprocal visit following Obama's trip to Yangon last November. The general deserves the credit.

Thein Sein has surprised the world with his courageous policies to open the country, which has been in near total isolation from the outside world for decades. He released political detainees, including opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi and abolished the press censorship in a way that even Suu Kyi never imagined before.

It is true that Myanmar now is facing mounting problems that were swept under the carpet during military dictatorship, including inter-ethnic conflict, human rights abuse, oppression of minorities and exploitation of power by army generals. It is also true that the country needs institutionalized economic and political reforms. But who can deny the progress?

We, Indonesians, who succeeded in forcing Soeharto to end his 32-year rule in May 1998, have strong empathy with the situation facing Myanmar. We also had to endure painful ordeals in democratizing our state after so often being abused by our two leaders, Sukarno and Soeharto, since our independence in 1945.

There is no shortcut to overcoming the plentiful challenges and there is no simple medication to cure such complicated issues.

The developments in Myanmar are a pleasant surprise for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) because the impoverished state has been treated as pariah by the international community before.

Thein Sein and Suu Kyi have no alternative but to work together to ensure that the reform process continues to flourish. It is not easy especially for the opposition icon because it is not inconceivable that she will face some tough questions herself: Is Suu Kyi ready to lose her iconic status?