SINGAPORE:
Southeast Asia's main grouping is virtually powerless to bring democracy to Myanmar, but its neighbors should not be blamed for the actions of the reclusive nation's junta, Singapore's prime minister said Friday.
"We have exercised our influence, persuaded, encouraged, cajoled the authorities in Myanmar to move and adapt to the world which is leaving them behind. The impact has been limited," Lee Hsien Loong said.
Lee said Myanmar was a "problem" for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which welcomed Myanmar as its 10th member partly in hopes of helping ease the country's political repression.
"We can take a strident position and say well, we will condemn you, we will shut you off, we will embargo you, we will put you in a dog house," Lee said. "Will we make things better? Will we cause things to change? I don't believe so."
Lee appealed to ASEAN's dialogue partners, mainly the United States and the European Union, not to limit contacts with the organization due to their differences with Myanmar.
"We should not, because of Myanmar, forsake the cooperation, the relationship, the mutual exchange and enrichment which is waiting to take place and I believe that this message has had some effect," said Lee.
Myanmar should have held ASEAN's rotating chairmanship and hosted the regional summit this year, but gave up the chance after protests by Western governments.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, and the currently ruling generals took power in 1988. They called elections in 1990, but refused to recognize the results when the party of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi won a resounding victory.
Suu Kyi has been held continuously under house arrest by Myanmar's ruling junta since 2003.
Myanmar's entry into ASEAN forced a challenge to the group's traditional avowal of noninterference in its members' internal affairs.
"ASEAN has decided not to have a consensus position. We will leave Myanmar to work itself out," Lee said.
While ASEAN members have shied away from taking a common position toward the regime fearing discord, the bloc last month appealed to the junta not to renew Suu Kyi's detention. Myanmar ignored the appeal.
"They want to be closed off from the rest of ASEAN," Lee said. Ideally Myanmar will adjust not under pressure but because it makes sense for themselves and for their leaders to move forward."
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/01/asia/AS-GEN-Asia-Security-Summit-Myanmar.php------------------
Will ASEAN allow Burma to diminish the grouping's standing in an era where regional cooperation is very important, and ASEAN is already in the shadow of China and India in terms of investment inflow and we need the US and EU to remain engaged.
Will pragmatism take over and lead ASEAN to realise that their strategic partnership with the other major powers is more important, and that the Burmese junta is a hindrance towards improving ASEAN-EU and ASEAN-US relationships and financial linkages, not to mention anchoring them to the region?
Will East Asia become a place where money is the only language, and China will establish a foothold here because she doesn't care for liberal rights and ruling attitudes as long as her economic power is there to be expanded. What kind of East Asia and ASEAN should concerned observers wish to have?
This issue will not go away overnight, and I forsee deeper splits in ASEAN over Burma. This is not good for a regional grouping that seeks to strengthen regionalism and community building amongst her member states. Likewise, if a state does not subscribe to this long-term goal, decisive action needs to be done. Has engagement proven to obtain any fruitful development in Rangoon? I don't think so.
If anything has happened, I think the junta has merely become more reclusive. It's always easy to claim totalitarian power, but it's harder to open up a nation.