The Philippine Star
May 28, 2007
This is a problem that refuses to go away, popping up at every major gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and turning into an embarrassment for the regional grouping. As the ASEAN Regional Forum met in Manila last week to discuss security issues, Burma announced it was extending by another year the four-year house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, which was supposed to end Sunday.
The Nobel laureate would have been Burma’s leader if the ruling junta had respected the results of elections held in 1990. Instead Suu Kyi has been in detention for the past 17 years, being shuttled between maximum security prison and her Rangoon home that has served as her cage.
ASEAN had ignored protests raised by several countries and accepted Burma as a member in July 1997, hoping that constructive engagement would encourage one of the most oppressive regimes in the world to initiate democratic and free market reforms.
But Burma is no China, whose pragmatic leaders have been opening up the country to the free market of goods and ideas since the death of Mao Zedong. The Burmese junta responded to people power-type street protests by mowing down the marchers with tanks and gunfire. Pressed to implement democratic reforms before assuming the revolving ASEAN chair, Burma instead opted to give up the seat to the Philippines.
That’s as far as sanctions would go in ASEAN, which has adhered to a policy of non-intervention in each member’s internal affairs. Reports said even an ASEAN charter that is being drawn up does not contain the word "sanctions."
In a rare departure from its policy of non-intervention, ASEAN has been outspoken in its criticism of the Burmese junta. Rangoon has brushed aside the criticism with endless empty promises of reforms, knowing its mere membership alone in ASEAN has bought it a measure of respect that cannot easily be withdrawn by the grouping.