As foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gather this week in Bali, the issue of Burma will be a key item on the agenda.
During the event, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, who has been appointed as the group's envoy to deal with Burma, will brief his counterparts on his recent trip to the country.
So far, almost everyone has tried to help free Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese activist and Nobel peace laureate, from her oppression by Burma's ruling junta.
First, the U.S. and the EU have put sanctions on Burma and, in recent years, threatened to boycott regional meetings in which it participated.
Next, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed a Malaysian diplomat as a special envoy to deal with Burma on the issue of its human rights record and lack of democracy.
Last year, a group of her fellow Nobel laureates wrote a joint letter to the junta demanding that it free Suu Kyi.
During a gathering of its foreign ministers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in June 2003, ASEAN issued a statement urging Burma's military rulers to free her.
All of these actions were grounded on Burma's poor human rights record and the 16-year house arrest that the junta has kept Suu Kyi under since 1990, when her National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide election that the regime refused to acknowledge.
Despite the pressure from the international community and ASEAN, of which Burma is a member, however, Pyinmana (the new capital of Burma) shows no inclination either to set Suu Kyi free or to work on its promised democratic reforms; in fact, it has just extended Suu Kyi's detention.
To ASEAN's credit, though, Burma surrendered its turn to chair the association in 2006. Since the chairmanship is rotated in alphabetical order, that honor was passed to the Philippines.
Moreover, an ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPM) was established last year with the aim of "instituting democracy in Burma" and, of course, to help free Suu Kyi.
"We (members of ASEAN countries' parliaments) cannot afford to be shortsighted and ignore the fact that our local and national interests are affected by regional problems. Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains detained in Myanmar, has asked us: 'Use your liberty to promote ours.' It is a call that applies not just to Myanmar but to the entire region," says Zaid Ibrahim, a Malaysian member of Parliament and president of the AIPM.
And after much pressure from ASEAN, Pyinmana allowed Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar a visit to Burma last month. The envoy, however, cut his visit short and left Pyinmana disappointed he could not see Suu Kyi or make any progress on talks with the Burmese government about the country's democratic reforms.
Like the U.S., the EU and others who have pushed Pyinmana for Suu Kyi's freedom, the efforts taken by ASEAN have failed for one reason; i.e. their one-sidedness.
In other words, so far, everyone has only criticized Pyinmana for being an undemocratic regime and demanded that it free Suu Kyi unconditionally. But no one seems to consider Burma's position and what it wants in order to let her go.
Nor has there been a win-win option for Burma and all parties involved. Diplomacy, after all, is not a one-way.
Furthermore, ASEAN lacks a strong will, or consensus, on the issue of Burma.
Aside from Burma, the other nine ASEAN members are divided into two camps: the first, which includes Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, has been outspoken in its criticism of Pyinmana. The second camp, which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, has remained neutral about the issue.
This division is a weakness that ASEAN has to work on if it is to deal with the issue of Burma more effectively.
Equally important, ASEAN should realize that Burma is an Asian country and a member of the association. So, whatever solution it comes up with to deal with Burma should be an Asian and ASEAN one, not one that is based on what the U.S. and the West say or want.
ASEAN should realize, too, that bullying will not work with Burma. The proof is that Burma does not seem to give a hoot about all the sanctions and rhetoric against from the U.S., the EU and ASEAN itself.
For one thing, Burma has allies in China, Russia and North Korea. But more importantly, Burma knows that it can keep Suu Kyi under house arrest for the rest of her life and nothing will happen to it. After all, unlike Iraq and Iran, it has neither nuclear weapons nor -- you guessed it -- oil!