Page 2 of 2 Unhappy anniversary for
ASEAN, Myanmar By Clive Parker
end of 2010, as part of the new
ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement.
Beijing's
willingness to overlook Myanmar's poor rights
record, which certain ASEAN members have
occasionally criticized, is speeding the two
authoritarian countries' economic integration.
When ASEAN members expressed their frustration at
the slow pace of change in Myanmar, "the regime
had essentially dumped it in favor of China", said
Debbie Stothard of the Alternative
ASEAN Network on Burma.
One big indication that Myanmar is moving
to hedge its ASEAN exposure: a new $1 billion gas
pipeline linking Sittway, Myanmar, to Kunming in
southwestern China, set for groundbreaking at the
end of this year. Analysts note that the pipeline
deal was sealed shortly after Beijing vetoed a
US-led United Nations Security Council resolution
against Myanmar's rights record in January.
ASEAN, on the other hand, sat on the fence
during the resolution's vote - Indonesia, the only
member of the bloc currently a member of the
Security Council, symbolically abstained. Yet in
2006 ASEAN applied uncharacteristic diplomatic
pressure on Myanmar to demonstrate progress on its
so-called "roadmap toward democracy". In March,
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
visited Yangon to follow up and was closely
followed by Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid
Albar that month.
In his capacity as an
ASEAN representative, Albar was charged with
inspecting Myanmar's "democratization process",
but his trip ended in frustration when he was
barred from meeting with members of the opposition
National League for Democracy, which won the
annulled 1990 polls.
Albar flew out of
Myanmar a day earlier than scheduled and, by some
accounts, ASEAN's already strained relationship
with Myanmar hit a new nadir. Past and current
United Nations overtures, including the new round
of outreach by the new UN secretary general's
special representative on Myanmar, Ibrahim
Gambari, meanwhile to date have wholly failed to
produce any democratic progress.
Charter hopes Now, ASEAN is
finally upping the diplomatic ante in a move that
will seemingly make or break its relations with
Myanmar. In a significant departure from the
grouping's erstwhile tenet of non-interference, by
next year ASEAN is expected to adopt a framework
that will legally bind its members to a charter
that enshrines democratic values, good governance,
and respect for human rights and freedoms.
Roshan Jason, spokesman for the ASEAN
inter-parliamentary caucus on Myanmar, a group of
regional parliamentary members aimed at pushing
for political change in that country, said the new
charter represents "one more opportunity to tackle
Myanmar, once and for all". ASEAN "must show the
political will to do so", he told Asia Times
Online.
Speaking to reporters in Singapore
on Tuesday, ASEAN secretary general Ong Keng Yong
said the group charter was aimed at Myanmar, but
he significantly ruled out the possibility of
punitive measures for non-compliance. That would
appear to give the junta yet another escape route
- although non-compliance would no doubt open the
regime to harsh criticism among ASEAN members.
Already it seems the junta is in denial
about the new charter's actual commitments. In a
May editorial run in the government mouthpiece New
Light of Myanmar, Myat Thu, a member of the
Myanmar delegation involved in charter discussions
in Manila, was quoted saying, "The meeting
chairman explained ... the charter would not
feature human rights and the discussions would not
focus on matters on termination of charter member
countries." The next meeting on the ASEAN
charter is set for next week in Manila, and a
draft is expected to be submitted for approval to
the ASEAN summit in Singapore this November.
In 1997, ASEAN assured the West that it
could cajole the junta on to a more democratic
path. Ten years later, through the new charter
initiative, the grouping appears to be finally
following through on that pledge. How much longer
Myanmar decides to remain in the regional club,
however, is an open question.
Clive
Parker is a Chiang Mai-based freelance
journalist.
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