Obama parries criticism of Myanmar trip Barack Obama on Sunday defended his decision to become the first US president to visit Myanmar, where the regime has begun gradual reform from dictatorship towards democracy. Speaking in Bangkok on the eve of his visit, he said it should not be seen as an endorsement of the reformist path of Thein Sein, the president. But he said it was "an acknowledgment that there is a process under way inside that country that even a year and a half, two years ago, nobody foresaw."" He had been guided by Myanmar's opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who visited him recently at the White House, he said, adding: "I'm not somebody who thinks the United States should stand on the sidelines and not get its hands dirty when there's an opportunity for us to encourage the better impulses inside a country." Human rights groups have argued that the visit is "too much, too soon," noting that 300 or more political prisoners remain in Myanmar's jails, fighting continues in the northern Kachin state - despite peace pacts with 10 other ethnic rebel groups; and that the official response to communal violence in the western Rakhine state that has displaced more than 110,000 people and killed hundreds has been unsatisfactory. They say the US president is taking a "leap of faith" by arranging the visit without public pledges from Burma on human rights. Ms Suu Kyi last week also switched from praise of Mr Thein Sein's reforms to warn that Myanmar "had not yet achieved democracy." But business leaders, analysts and many diplomats insist the visit is a crucial boost for Mr Thein Sein's reforms. "The Obama trip is important in virtually all aspects, political, economical as well as social," said Serge Pun, a leading local businessman. It's also a very timely boost to the government's many reform efforts...That's why I can't agree that Obama should wait a couple of years before making such a historic trip. Ben Rhodes, the US deputy national security adviser, said on Sunday the US shared the concerns over human rights in Myanmar but that the "best way" to address them was "to engage and to have the president go and deliver those messages directly to Burma's leaders and people." Somewhat lost in the debate is the fact that Mr Obama has already delivered clear but discreet messages to Myanmar's leaders. The first is in the lightning duration of his visit, less than six hours. A quick trip, explained a western diplomat, "will send the right signal without being seen to overdo it." Mr Obama's decision to avoid the capital, Naypyidaw, attributed to time constraints, was also partly in response to Ms Suu Kyi's warning that his presence there would implicitly endorse the unpopular decision by former military dictator Than Shwe to relocate the capital from Yangon. Another message is the choice of Yangon University for Mr Obama's address to "civil society." The university, formerly one of Asia's finest, was a frontline target for repression from the early 1960s onwards. It was all but dismantled and starved of funds by successive military regimes as students were dispersed to far-flung campuses and education spending dwindled to less than 2 per cent of the national budget - as military spending grew to more than 20 per cent. These messages - combined with high hopes in Naypyidaw for more US support and growing fears the Rakhine crisis could prompt western calls for fresh sanctions - have already had an effect. Mr Thein Sein on Friday said solutions would be found to the Rakhine crisis and suggested in a letter to the UN secretary-general he would address issues such as increased rights for the country's estimated 800,000 stateless Muslim Rohingya. The government is also preparing to release 65 political prisoners on Monday and to announce other reforms to coincide with Mr Obama's visit. These include setting up a "transparent mechanism" to reassess remaining cases, provide greater access for international humanitarian organisations to prisons and conflict areas and to increase the government's commitments to international anti-human trafficking and forced labour agreements. The US for its part announced the lifting of its ban on most imports from Myanmar, and suggested official aid and investment incentives would result from the Obama visit. What Mr Thein Sein wants most however is the permanent removal of US sanctions; many in Myanmar see the temporary easing of US curbs this year as half-hearted and half-baked. That removal, however, is beyond the gift of even a newly re-elected president.