Host Malaysia appears to have finalised the agenda for the December Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) meeting to be held in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said on Monday that Asean's long-held policy of non-interference in each other's affairs would be upheld. He added that the meeting's focus will be on economic issues and the integration of Asean and it won't be discussing specific issues or human rights. By stating ''specific issues'', Mr Syed Albar clearly is indicating the issue of Malaysia-Thai border problems and that of democracy in Burma and the future of Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest, will not be on the agenda. While the Thai-Malaysia problem is a bilateral one which should be able to be resolved between neighbours, the issue of Burma is much more complicated.
Mr Syed Albar perhaps forgets that Malaysia was the country instrumental in pushing for Burma's inclusion as a member of Asean and it was accepted in 1997. At the time, Malaysia argued that by utilising constructive engagement with the military junta in an Asean environment, it may help in the international push towards democracy in that country. It said constructive engagement would be far better and more effective than expanding international sanctions as was then being suggested by the United States and European Union.
''Asean is not in the habit of discussing a particular country in an agenda,'' Mr Syed Hamid said on Monday, but he said leaders, who are all conscious of the Asean tradition, were free to raise any issue on the sidelines of the summit. Unfortunately, the Burma junta's refusal to adopt democratic reforms simply cannot be adequately addressed ''on the sidelines''. If this is the attitude of Asean, it is clear that it has no intention of really addressing the situation in Burma.
This is disappointing to much of the populace of the region, who especially sympathise with democracy icon Suu Kyi, whose supporters claimed this week that Burma's democratically elected leader had now spent 10 years of her life under house arrest. But it is also a slap in the face of the United Nations. Late last year, then UN's special envoy to Burma, Razali Ismail, specifically called on Asean to do more to speed up democratic reforms the junta had promised to carry out. He said there would be no change in Burma unless Asean members accept that responsibility.
Last year in Bangkok UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed his concern over the slow pace of democratic reform and the junta's failure to free Mrs Suu Kyi. According to then government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair, Mr Annan said that ''Thailand as a neighbouring country must find the right way to help achieve this''.
Despite much publicised sanctions put in place by Western countries, the leading suppliers of goods to Burma are nations who also have similar ideologies in regards to their government opponents. The main suppliers of goods to the junta are China 28.9%, Singapore 20.8%, Thailand 14%, Malaysia 9.3%, South Korea 5.5%, Taiwan 5.1% and Japan 4%, and business people from these countries throng to Rangoon in search of continuing that trend.
Today, with the ousting of prime minister Khin Nyunt, who is apparently under house arrest, and the much-touted seven-point road map to change at a complete dead-end, the Burmese junta is further away from democracy than it has been in years. New Prime Minister Soe Win, according to the BBC, commanded an infantry division which helped crush the democracy party in 1988 following Mrs Suu Kyi's overwhelming election victory. The BBC also suggests that he was behind the attack on Mrs Suu Kyi's convoy in 2003.
But since taking the chair on Oct 19 last year, Soe Win has given no time frame to a completion of the road map.
It is not too late for Asean to place the issue of Burma on its agenda. In doing so it can show the world that it is facing up to its moral obligation and responsibility to address the suffering and exploitation incurring in its member nation.