Ashamed to be an ASEAN
Kanbawza Win
Providence has destined us to be born as an ASEAN, but still one can chose to drop its ASEAN characteristics, adopt a new citizenship outside of Southeast Asia and chose a country of his choice reside and die there. This is what the majority of the Burmese in Diaspora are doing for it is a disgrace to continue to survive as a Southeast Asian, because the national character of this regional grouping is so low that no democrat desire to identify with Southeast Asia any longer. The ASEAN values initiated by the core leaders of ASEAN especially Lew Kuan Yew (Harry) of Singapore and Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad of Malaysia, is such abasement in the international community that the international community has come to the rescue often. Its hypocritical Constructive Engagement policy towards the Burmese Military Junta clearly paints the national character of ASEAN countries. But, this does not come as a surprise to the people of Burma because the national character of the core leaders of this regional grouping can be measured in dollars and cents. It has reached to such a level that the former U.N. chief Kofi Annan urged Southeast urged the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations must not use its noninterference policy as "an excuse to stay out and not get involved" in helping Burma to improve its human rights record and encourage to be more bold and aggressive in prodding military-ruled Burma to democratize. "All other regional organizations which started the same way of noninterference now realize that crises do not remain internal or geographically limited for long. It tends to spread and they have been much more active in intervening whether it is the African Union, the European Union ... they have been very active in trying to assist their neighbors to get things right and I think ASEAN should be able to do that." Kofi Annan also said that ASEAN must be more "politically courageous to promote good governance in the region for political oppression and human rights abuse often send citizens across borders as refugees, which could poison the whole neighborhood as a whole." Human rights issues appear to be a low priority in this part of the world. Democracy is just part of the lip service, there are many classic examples e.g. how was Dr Chee treated in Singapore, languishing in jail just because he practice democracy by questioning the authorities, how about the case former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia, not to mention the average man. These core countries have loudly professed democracy not to mention the Indo Chinese country that are on the verge of going from the command economy to the market economy and are inching from totalitarian to command democracy. The Burmese saying is “Shwe Htwet Yin A Mae Na Phu Pauk Sein Hnin Pauk Mae” meaning these Southeast Asian leaders will not hesitate to hack the brow of their mother, if golden coins were to come out of it. They are out and out to exploit the unfortunate Burmese people and country. Their main aim is they want access to Burma 's giant off-shore gas fields, and to its natural resources - timber and minerals a classic example being that neighboring Thailand has signed hydro-electric deals. Such is their morality as far as Burma is concerned July 23, 2007—July marked the 10th anniversary of Burma ’s admission to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. “Constructive Engagement” policy, designed to convince the world that bringing the junta to the table was better than further marginalizing it, has proven to be a disastrous approach and totally wrong. The policy was, in reality, neither constructive nor engaging, but merely served to legitimize Burma ’s brutal regime with the blessing of ASEAN. Burmese Junta’s reluctance to push for democratic reform and the continued imprisonment of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi have severely damaged the credibility of ASEAN as a block in the eyes of the world Ten years on, the group needs to seriously reassess Burma’s membership and its own failure in pressuring the Junta to implement democratic reform. The simple logical questions of how Burma ’s participation as a member had contributed to the future of the organization need to be asked. It is plain to see that the success of these Burmese liars, making numerous promises to the organization once it gained membership was able continue to defy regional and international pressure to change its political course is because of its abundant natural resources, which the group enjoys and continue to provide a protective shield against an increasingly outraged international community. A decade has passed and ASEAN has not managed to come up with a strategy on Burma nor a mechanism, if the latter continues to challenge its credibility and as such ASEAN is being dismissed by the international community as irrelevant. What more prove is wanted when ASEAN’S anticipation of Burma becoming the chairmanship, would provide a more responsible member was shattered, when Burma blithely gave up the rotating chairmanship. The regional bloc’s long-term goal of establishing an ASEAN community by 2015 and of launching an ASEAN Charter has become a mockery. The most difficult task for ASEAN will be to convince Burma ’s two giant neighbors, the necessity of putting human rights before strategic interests as they themselves did not practice what they preach. The forthcoming ASEAN charter will decide at last whether Burma is worth protecting or whether it is simply dead weight for the organization for not only there was a lack of change for democracy but there is a lack of respect for human rights. Singaporean Ong Keng Yong, Secretary General of ASEAN, has hinted that ASEAN Charter will "stress responsibility and obligation of membership." By codifying the rules by which member states are to conduct themselves, the Charter is seen as strengthening regulations and better defining the necessary and acceptable behavior of countries in the ten nation bloc. Will this be a paper tiger or prod Naypyidaw's generals to political reform is still yet to be seen because the intended charter remain mute to the punitive actions of a fail member state to meet the criteria. Even if it does what will happen, when former Thailand Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan take over the reins of ASEAN? In the meantime US President George W Bush recently canceled a meeting with ASEAN leaders in Singapore during a scheduled Asia trip. Soon after, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that she too would skip the ASEAN Regional Forum, in Manila . As Burma ’s economy has become more reliant on ASEAN goods and markets, some political analysts suggest the grouping has more political leverage over the regime than it has exercised. That economic integration is expected to increase, because all ASEAN members have committed to reduce tariffs to below 5% by the end of 2010, as part of the new ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement. Beijing 's willingness to overlook Burma ’s poor rights records prompted the regime in favor of China . A new $1 billion gas pipeline linking Akyab, to Kunming signed when Beijing vetoed a US-led United Nations Security Council resolution against Myanmar 's rights record in January. Already it seems the Burmese Junta’s is in denial about the new charter's actual commitments. In a May editorial run in the government mouthpiece New Light of Burma, 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." In fact news has just release that Burma has objected officially to a proposal to create a regional human rights body that calls for respect of fundamental freedoms, the promotion and protection of human rights and the promotion of social justice. One would recollect that Indonesia has proposed the idea since 2003 but ASEAN has failed to reach a consensus on it. This is the second attempt and we are quite positive that Burma with a good record of egregious human rights violations will strongly object and if beaten will quit the grouping. The game is up and the notorious “Constructive Engagement” will go to the grave. We could not comprehend of why these ASEAN leaders are not ashamed. The country is run by an utterly illegitimate government that spends 50 per cent of its budget on the military and less than a $1 per head on the health and education of its own citizens. The thugs and impostors who rule the roost practice some of the most egregious human rights abuses known to mankind. Rape as a weapon of war, extra-judicial killings, water torture, mass displacement, compulsory relocation, forced labor, incarceration of political prisoners, religious and ethnic cleansing, and the daily destruction of rural villages are all part of the story of savagery which the ASEAN countries overlooked. People lack access to food, water, sanitation and the most basic health and education provision. Over 500,000 are internally displaced people in eastern Burma and the 100,000 living in refugee camps in Thailand . Harrowing accounts of children dying from malnutrition, women perishing in childbirth and people succumbing to HIV, malaria and tuberculosis are just some of the pictures. According to the British MPs that visited Burma very lately the most shocking of all was the experience of meeting children who told them that they had seen their parents shot dead and parents who were forced to watch their children's summary execution. Even though the universal standard rule of business always overruling conscience, our Asian moral always pales much viz a viz Western civilization. Perhaps it is because of the birth place of religions. India with a huge Hindu beliefs and China Confucianism has demonstrated their moral character by the supporting the Burmese Junta and the irony is that ASEAN with a most densely populated population of half a billion with all sorts of religious adherents (Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei Muslims, Singapore Confucianism, Philippines Christian, while Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand were Buddhist) is far worst than other groupings. Isn’t it a high time for the ASEAN to consider the punitive actions of Burma ? Simon Fraser University Vancouver , BC
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