by - Zin Linn
Asia Tribune
2005-07-18
It was in 1976 in the Thailand’s Department of Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok, the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) came into existence on August 8, with the signing of 'Bangkok Declaration' by foreign ministers of five original member countries namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.
The five foreign ministers are considered the organization's ‘Founding Fathers,’ and they are Adam Malik of Indonesia, Narciso R. Ramos of the Philippines, Tun Abdul Razak of Malaysia, S. Rajaratnam of Singapore, and Thanat Khoman of Thailand. The ‘Founding Fathers’ envisaged that the organization would eventually encompass all the countries in Southeast Asian region.
Following the founding of the organization, Brunei Darussalam became the sixth member of the ASEAN when it joined on January 7, 1984, barely a week after the country became independent on January 1, 1984. It would be a further 11 years before ASEAN expanded from its original six core members.
Vietnam became the seventh member in July 28, 1995, and Laos and Myanmar joined two years later in July 23, 1997. Vietnam would become the first Communist member of ASEAN. Cambodia was to have joined the ASEAN together with Laos and Myanmar, but was deferred due to the country's internal political struggle. Cambodia finally joined on April 30, 1999, following the stabilization of its government.
Joining of Cambodia brought the completion of ASEAN-10, by which constituting almost all the countries in the Southeast Asia region.
The Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) in Southeast Asia, was signed at the First ASEAN Summit on 24 February 1976, which declared that ASEAN political and security dialogue and cooperation should aim to promote regional peace and stability by enhancing regional resilience. Regional resilience shall be achieved by cooperating in all fields based on the principles of self-confidence, self-reliance, mutual respect, cooperation, and solidarity, which shall constitute the foundation for a strong and viable community of nations in Southeast Asia.
The Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had started facing the first strong challenge from the international community due to Burma or Myanmar's human rights violations on 30 May 2003. The Association was called on to address human rights concerns in the region, including allegations of grave human rights violations at Dapeyin in Sagaing Division of Upper Myanmar, where the country's charismatic leader Aung San Suu Kyi (General-Secretary of the National League for Democracy - NLD) and her entourage were ambushed by the military junta's goons and killed more than 70 innocent people. From that day on, Aung San Suu Kyi and her chief lieutenant U Tin Oo (Vice-Chairman of the NLD) and many others were arrested and kept incarcerated till to date...
As international pressure piled up, ASEAN has to review its noninterference policy. In a departure from the ASEAN policy of "non-interference", the organization issued a statement calling for the early release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD members during the 36th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) (held on 16, 17 June 2003) in Phnom Penh.
ASEAN’s concern followed a Myanmar junta-backed attack on Aung San Suu Kyi and hundreds of other political activists, where scores of people were killed or injured.
The AMM's statement says – “We discussed the recent political developments in Myanmar, particularly the incident of 30 May 2003. We noted the efforts of the Government of Myanmar to promote peace and development. In this connection, we urged Myanmar to resume its efforts of national reconciliation and dialogue among all parties concerned leading to a peaceful transition to democracy.”
In Myanmar hundreds of the National League for Democracy (NLD) members and supporters were arrested in the context of the 30 May 2003, violence against Aung San Suu Kyi. They have been joining over 1400 other political prisoners who were already in the various notorious prisons throughout the country. Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD senior leadership have been detained since then, amid strong international criticisms and condemnation of the extrajudicial killings and the subsequent repression of peaceful political opposition inside the nation.
In late August 2003, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC or Myanmar's military regime) was reshuffled and a 7-point "Roadmap" was announced by the then newly-appointed Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt. However this “Roadmap” did not include plans for improving the serious deterioration of human rights situation and substantive political reforms in the country.
European and Southeast Asian officials were continuously pressing Myanmar's military government to do away with political restrictions and take responsibilities for political reforms. Burma's human rights record has been a sore point in relations between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the European Union.
Top European Union diplomats said that they had frank discussions about Burma on 10 March 2005 in Jakarta with officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Jean Asselborn is the foreign minister of Luxembourg, which held the European Union’s presidency. He said that the European diplomats pointed out their grave concerns about Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy activist who is being held under house arrest for almost the greater part of the past 15 years by the Myanmar military junta.
"We reiterated the need for the early lifting of all restrictions and we asked for the release of all - all - political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi," Jean Asselborn said.
Burma, a member of ASEAN, is set to take over the organization's presidency in the year 2006. However, many European officials have long advocated democratic reforms in Burma and the issue has caused friction between the European Union and ASEAN.
"We called on Myanmar to grant access to the special representative of the United Nations and to continue effective cooperation with all U.N. agencies," he said. "We discussed ways to promote positive development in Myanmar and agreed to continue dialogue on this issue."
At Cebu city, Philippines on 12 April 2005, ASEAN member nations have failed to reach a consensus on whether to allow Myanmar to take up the association's revolving chairmanship in 2006, as scheduled. Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamong-khon said Myanmar's military regime would make a decision based on the best interests of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Kantathi reiterated ASEAN's principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of member countries, adding that Thailand does not want the chairmanship issue for Myanmar to become an obstacle to the ASEAN's unity. The grouping has come under pressure from several member nations, as well as the United States and the European Union, to make Myanmar's chairmanship conditional on an improvement of its human rights record and substantive political reforms.
The issue was raised on the last day of the ASEAN foreign ministers' held at a retreat on Cebu Island in the Philippines. Laos, which chaired the three-day meeting, said foreign ministers would take up the issue again at a meeting in Vientiane, Laos, in July 2005. "It has been agreed that since this is an informal meeting, we should discuss the Myanmar issue at the upcoming Asean ministerial meeting at Vientiane," said Lao Foreign Minister Somsavat Lengsavad, who chaired the meeting at the retreat in Cebu, located in the Philippines.
The issue of Myanmar's impending chairmanship has exposed divisions in the 10-member grouping, with older members such as the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia demanding real democratic change in the military-ruled country.
Newer members such as Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos have taken a more supportive stand, some invoking Asean's long-held tradition of consensus building and noninterference in the affairs of its members.
Myanmar, which is internationally condemned for political and human rights abuses, including the detention of the Nobel Peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is due to take the alphabetically rotating chairmanship of Asean in 2006. The United States and the European Union, which have imposed economic sanctions on the country, have been pressuring the regional grouping to block its chairmanship.
Filipino Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo at the Cebu retreat predicted that he expected "vigorous debates" over Myanmar amid continued pressure from the West. Romulo also spoke out Manila's position that Myanmar's ruling junta should implement promised democratic reforms, release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, give access for the drawing of a democratic constitution and allow the U.N. special envoy to visit the country showing cooperation with the world body.
In June 2005, the Indonesian Parliament's Commission on Defence and Foreign Affairs issued a resolution urging the government to boycott the ASEAN meetings if military-ruled Burma or Myanmar is allowed to take over the chairmanship.
Indonesia's parliamentarians are urging their government to support the resolution, which the parliamentary commission passed.
Malaysian and Philippine legislators, along with pro-democracy groups, have also opposed Myanmar's chairmanship, warning that ASEAN could lose credibility.
However, Myanmar's junta taking over of the chairmanship has become a thorn in ASEAN's side, which has a tradition of non-interference in members' domestic affairs. ASEAN officials say it will be solely up to the military regime in the Association to decide whether to take the helm next year or to retreat.
Because of Myanmar's dismal human-rights record, the United States and the European Union have repeatedly warned to boycott ASEAN meetings and stall development aid to the regional organization if it allows the military regime taking the chair. Most ASEAN nations are anxious to maintain good ties with their major trading partners.
The Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar [Burma] Caucus, or AIPMC, which comprises representatives from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Cambodia, urged their governments to take the situation in the military ruled country seriously. Asean could otherwise lose credibility. At the moment the grouping is bound by its "constructive engagement" policy towards Burma's military regime. The AIPMC was originally formed by Malaysian legislators in May 2004.
Subsequently other legislators - both ruling party and opposition - from the other five Asean countries joined to give the AIPMC a total membership of about 400. The group in Bangkok had previously been in Malaysia and Indonesia to push its Burma proposals, and will now go to the Philippines.
A group of MPs from Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia have formed the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Caucus for Myanmar (AIPMC) as part of a campaign to raise awareness among legislators in their own countries of the situation in Myanmar and put pressure on the junta to free Aung San Suu Kyi and restore democracy.
Led by Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, head of the Malaysian caucus, they are asking that Myanmar, which is scheduled to take over as chairman of Asean by rotation next year, be denied the position unless Daw Aung Suu Kyi is released and other conditions met. This demand - in the Asean context - is surely unprecedented. But Zaid says it could mark the start of a new period of maturity and self-confidence within the region.
There should be a minimum standard of conduct that Asean members have to meet, says Zaid, who insists that this action does not violate the regional grouping's "non-interference" principle. For many years the international community had called upon Asean to take the lead in addressing the situation in Myanmar. These caucuses can be seen as rising to that challenge, he says.
To have legislators throughout the region to come together at both national and regional levels on an issue of human rights and democracy is encouraging not only for Asean, but for each individual country, says Zaid. The AIPMC says despite "constructive engagement" with Myanmar since its admittance into Asean in 1997, little progress had been made towards democracy and genuine national reconciliation.
The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) urges the ASEAN governments of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, and Philippines to respect the stand of the AIPMC that Myanmar should not be allowed to assume the ASEAN Chair 2006 unless Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners are released and a meaningful democratization and national reconciliation introduced in the country. There should be no softening of this stand, which should be formalized by the 38th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Vientiane, Laos on July 25-29, 2005.
Lim Kit Siang, Malaysian opposition leader and AIPMC member, also said it was important that regional leaders tackle Burma's problems before it takes over the Asean chairmanship. He even urged them to expel Burma from the grouping unless there was political progress in the country. He pointed out in his media statement to promote democratization in Burma as well as in the ASEAN countries.
In his statement he emphasized, “ASEAN Parliamentarians should step up the campaign for democratization and national reconciliation in Myanmar in the next two months before the commencement of the 38th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Laos on the importance of heeding and respecting growing ASEAN parliamentary and civil society opinion that:
(i) Myanmar should not take the ASEAN Chair 2006 in the absence of meaningful democratization and national reconciliation efforts; and
(ii) Even if Myanmar voluntarily postpones its ASEAN Chairmanship 2006, the AMM should go on record to hold the Myanmar military junta to its undertaking when it was admitted into ASEAN in 1997 to work towards democratization and national reconciliation in Myanmar.
Recently on 11 July 2005, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Thailand to press the neighboring Myanmar junta to release all political prisoners including Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and move towards a greater openness and democratic reforms. Rice said that the United States was encouraging all of its partners, not just alone Thailand, but all partners who have contacts with Burma or Myanmar to press the case for human rights, to press the case for greater openness, to press the case for human rights for activists like Aung San Suu Kyi to be released forthwith, who represents the democratic movement for of reconciliation in Myanmar.
Since the 30 May 2003 Dapeyin attack, the junta has reconvened a National Convention to draw up a constitution, as part of a 7-step Roadmap to democracy. To everybody's knowledge, 1,076 delegates were handpicked by the junta, while the representatives-elect from the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the main representatives of the ethnic nationalities have been excluded from the process. In addition, the junta refused to release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders, thus denying them the opportunity to participate in the National Convention.
The United States has previously suggested that it won't send a representative to next year's ASEAN meetings if Myanmar becomes chair of the body. Washington shuns Myanmar's junta for its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.
There are still over 140,000 refugees in camps in Thailand. Approximately 20,000 refugees are in Bangladesh, and an estimated 52,000 Chin and Kachin refugees are in India. There are records of the systematic forced relocation of ethnic villages, and the use of forced labor, human minesweepers, child soldiers, torture, religious persecution, killings and the destruction of villages, rice barns, livestock and crops.
Burma Army has been exercising forced conscription and it has the highest number of child soldiers in the world. According to rights groups, there are about 70,000 child soldiers in the Burma Army, some as young as 11, being taken from bus stops and street corners, or on their way home from school, and forced to join the army.
The systematic use of rape as a weapon of war by the Burma Army has been documented in many reports. Remarkable reports are such as License to Rape (Shan Human Rights Foundation - 2002), No Safe Place (Refugees International - 2003), Shattering Silences (Karen Women's Organization - 2004) and System of Impunity (Women's League of Burma - 2004).
The ASEAN Declaration stated that the Association aims to accelerate the economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region, in order to strengthen the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful community of Southeast Asian nations. But, how can the Asean fulfill its major purposes with a military ruled member country which neglects norms of the civilized-organization? How can the association build up a prosperous and peaceful community while it has been accepting a rogue State as a member? The ASEAN should review this question objectively.
The next aim of the association is to promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in the relationship among countries in the region and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter. Member countries should thoroughly reconsider this purpose also. While the junta is shutting its eyes, extra-judicial killings, violence against women and children are taking place in daily basic in the military ruled country. There is no law and order at all. With such a lawless country as a member, can ASEAN manage to implement it aims? Actually, ASEAN's constructive engagement policy towards Myanmar (Burma) has been a complete failure.
Burmese people feel that the military regime has been using membership in ASEAN as a shield to protect pressures from the International Community over its dismal human rights record. ASEAN's prestige has been tarnish because of the military regime's membership.
Today's question for ASEAN and European Union as well as Japan is to think over whether Burma a dictatatorial or a democrat state? According to a Burmese saying, a tiger is a tiger and it never lives on grass. Then, if someone says a dictator would build a democratic country, it may be an object of ridicule for the Burmese society.
There are still arguments that the time for ASEAN to abandon its long standing policy of non-interference in another country's internal affairs if the affairs of a country spilled over and affected regional security. ASEAN's policy-makers have to debate on the Burma Question in the 38th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Vientiane, Laos on July 25-29, 2005.
ASEAN should review its policy towards Burma under the military dictatorship for the sake of the association's future.
- Asian Tribune -
http://www.asiantribune.com/oldsite/show_news.php?id=15065
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