SPEAKING FREELY ASEAN makes fragile Myanmar progress
By Christina Hadju
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say.
Please click hereif you are interested in contributing.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN's) biggest achievement in
Myanmar occurred largely under the radar. With this past weekend's 14th summit
meeting decision to establish an ASEAN human-rights body by the end of the
year, many now hope for a stronger ASEAN stance on Myanmar's abysmal
human-rights record.
But the focus on ASEAN's human-rights mechanism has overshadowed the inroads
the organization has already made through humanitarian assistance to Myanmar.
Less than a year
ago, the Myanmar military regime initially refused to accept outside assistance
for communities severely affected by Cyclone Nargis. When the cyclone struck in
May 2008, it left 140,000 Myanmar citizens dead or missing and 2.4 million
severely affected, according to United Nations statistics.
The regime eventually flip-flopped and agreed to join hands with ASEAN and the
United Nations through the Tripartite Core Group, tasked with coordinating the
distribution of international assistance to storm victims. Largely overlooked
by the media was the decision this past weekend to extend the ASEAN
humanitarian taskforce and the Tripartite Core Group in Myanmar until July
2010.
For the first time, ASEAN set up an operational arm with an office in Yangon.
Since the establishment of the coordination effort, Myanmar has issued close to
3,000 visas to international humanitarian workers and allowed them, for the
most part, unimpeded access to the Irrawaddy Delta region, the area worst hit
by the cyclone.
This unprecedented international humanitarian presence in usually reclusive
Myanmar has the potential to bring about indirect improvements in the
human-rights conditions of local communities. There is no question that ASEAN's
tradition of non-interference has hampered the organization's efforts to take a
strong stand on human rights and democracy. And any human-rights body set up by
ASEAN could still be scuttled by strict adherence to principles on
non-interference included in the grouping's new charter.
On several fronts, ASEAN's position on Myanmar has disappointed. The weekend
summit made no mention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in
detention since 2003. Equally disheartening was ASEAN's weak position on the
question of ethnic Rohingya migrants, relegating their plight as one part of
the broader issue of migration in the Indian Ocean that would be best addressed
by other international fora.
Human-rights activists were similarly furious that summit organizers conceded
to Myanmar and Cambodian government protests and barred the selected civil
society representatives from those countries from attending a rare face-to-face
meeting with ASEAN leaders.
On the other hand, humanitarian assistance is an area where ASEAN has made
inroads. One week after the cyclone, ASEAN sent in an Emergency Rapid
Assessment Team and with ASEAN secretary general Surin Pitsuwan's diplomacy got
Myanmar to agree to a humanitarian taskforce to coordinate the international
effort. Its success was that it at least partially alleviated the Myanmar
regime's suspicion of assistance from the West.
For a government that by most assessments expends only 5% of its efforts on the
functions of government, with the rest focused on suppressing internal
opposition, the establishment of a three-year community reconstruction plan was
a positive step. Some contend the periodic assessments and reviews of the aid
effort signal progress in official transparency, far from the norm under the
junta's impenetrable and isolationist political style.
The ASEAN and international presence is not only of humanitarian value for the
communities devastated by the natural disaster. It also has the potential for
small steps forward on improving human-rights standards in the country.
The idea is that the humanitarian efforts have not aimed at investigating,
reporting or prosecuting human-rights abuses. Rather, the mere presence of
international organizations and non-governmental organizations has allowed the
international community to get on-the-ground information about the true plight
of the people of Myanmar.
Accurate information about conditions in Myanmar, particularly outside the
major city centers, is difficult to come by. Foreign diplomats and
international officials based in the old capital, Yangon, must usually apply
for permission from the government if they are to travel anywhere outside the
city - and permission is not always granted. Even the Asian Development Bank
finds it difficult to source accurate statistics on Myanmar, stating vaguely
that actual gross domestic product growth (GDP) in Myanmar is below potential
and significantly less than official figures indicate.
According to most assessments, Myanmar is not doing well. It remains one of the
world's poorest countries, particularly in comparison to its more developed
ASEAN neighbors. The United Nations Development Program's recent human
development report cites Myanmar's GDP per capita as the lowest in ASEAN. The
high level of corruption also ensures that GDP growth, which draws largely on
its expanding natural gas sector, does not improve the lives of the vast
majority of the population.
The exploitation of Myanmar's lucrative energy reserves should have raised the
natural standards of living; instead fuel prices were hiked to disastrous
affect in 2007 and rural poverty is on the increase, with 70% of the country's
workforce employed in agriculture. Corruption watchdog Transparency
International lists Myanmar as the world's second-most corrupt country,
trailing only Somalia.
Further deterioration in living standards in Myanmar can be expected. The
US-based research organization Fund for Peace places Myanmar in the highest
category of vulnerability to internal conflict and social deterioration - the
same category as war-torn countries like Somalia and Sudan. It cites Myanmar's
tuberculosis rate as one of the highest in the world. An estimated 50% of
Asia's malaria deaths also occur in Myanmar.
It is not to say that neglect and human-rights violations will necessarily drop
with the in-country presence of international humanitarian agencies. But
ASEAN's work is a step toward achieving longer term, on-the-ground
international scrutiny that could eventually serve as a deterrent to
human-rights abuses and go towards alleviating some of Myanmar's many
humanitarian needs.
Currently, the international presence is confined largely to the delta region.
Rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch reports that travel restrictions are
still imposed on humanitarian officials. And to date Myanmar has resisted
efforts to expand the geographic reach of aid organizations to other areas with
extreme humanitarian need.
For instance, there is insufficient information about the plight of the
estimated 500,000 internally displaced persons by fighting between government
forces and insurgency groups in Myanmar's eastern region. There are also
reports of severe food shortages in isolated parts of western Myanmar's Chin
state.
The question now is how far will ASEAN's intervention go, given the grouping's
default penchant for non-intervention. The current chair of ASEAN, Thailand,
has incentives to push the initiative forward.
Thailand has long grappled with the complexities of sharing a porous border
with Myanmar. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva it seems would be keen to
distinguish his government's Myanmar policy from those of the former Thaksin
Shinawatra government, where business opportunities were largely the driver of
bilateral relations.
Abhisit's fellow Thai Democrat party politician, former Thai foreign minister,
and now ASEAN secretary general Surin, is known to hold principled views on
Myanmar. Many believe he carries the personal charisma to mediate between the
generals and the international community. But time is of the essence. After
2009, though, the outlook for ASEAN’s engagement in Myanmar will be more
uncertain.
The next chair of ASEAN, Vietnam, will not carry the same incentives to forge
humanitarian ties and respect for rights progress in Myanmar. Still, ASEAN's
emergency disaster management response program represented a substantial step
forward for the organization, and a new form of international intervention in
Myanmar.
By all means possible, ASEAN should protect and expand on this fragile
achievement.
Christina Hajdu worked for five years in the Australian Foreign Service
in Southeast Asia. She is currently serving as a political analyst for the
Commonwealth Secretariat in London and has also worked for the United Nations
and the International Criminal Court. The views expressed here are her own.
(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about
sales, syndication and
republishing.)
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say.
Please click hereif you are interested in contributing.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road,
Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
