ASEAN defends its policy on Myanmar

ASEAN defends its policy on Myanmar

JAKARTA (JP): The Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) yesterday defended its policy of "constructive
engagement" with Myanmar amidst suggestions that the group has
failed to push the military regime in Yangon to undertake
political reforms.

"We have adopted this policy of constructive engagement
because we'd like to draw Myanmar out of its isolation and bring
it into the mainstream of life in our region," ASEAN Secretary
General Dato' Ajit Singh told reporters yesterday.

Dato' Ajit pointed out that there has been an increase of high
level visits by Myanmarese leaders to various ASEAN capitals and
also by ASEAN leaders to Yangon over the past year.

Some ASEAN countries have also began building trade and
economic ties with Myanmar, he said.

"As far as we're concerned, our objective is to try to draw
Myanmar slowly into the mainstream of our activities in the
region," Dato' Ajit said. "We hope by doing this it will also
improve the political climate in Myanmar."

The latest criticism against ASEAN's constructive engagement
policy with Myanmar came from an exiled senior Myanmarese
opposition leader on Thursday, who said that the approach has
further strengthened the military junta's iron grip instead of
pushing them towards reforms.

'Very dangerous'

U.S.-based Sein Win, prime minister of the self-proclaimed
National Coalition Government of the Union of Myanmar comprising
of exiled oppositionists, also cautioned ASEAN members against
dealing with his nation's military rulers, saying they were "very
dangerous."

Sein Win's remarks, quoted by Reuters, were made in Manila on
Thursday. He is a cousin of Myanmarese opposition leader and 1991
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi who is under house
arrest.

ASEAN -- consisting of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- has also resisted pressure
from some of its major Western trading partners such as the
United States and the European Union to take a harder stand,
including isolation and economic embargo, against Myanmar.

The Myanmar controversy is likely to flare up again at a
series of ASEAN ministerial level conferences in Bangkok between
July 22 and 28, that will also involve meetings with the group's
"dialogue partners": the United States, Canada, Japan, South
Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union.

This is even more so as Myanmar has been invited for the first
time to attend the ASEAN ministerial meeting on July 22-23.

"Myanmar has been invited as a guest of the host country,"
Dato' Ajit said.

The Myanmar minister will attend the opening and the closing
ceremonies and there are no plans so far for separate meetings
with the Myanmar representative, he said.

In Manila yesterday, Philippine Foreign Secretary Roberto
Romula said ASEAN will continue to adopt its constructive
engagement policy although issues like Aung Sang Suu Kyi arrest
may be raised privately by ASEAN leaders with Yangon.

"We do not in any sense, interfere in the affairs of another
country," he told reporters as quoted by AFP.

"I'm sure that at some point in time, someone will bring that
point up and it will be discussed in the confines of a conference
room," he said. "In the ASEAN way, it's done in privacy." (emb)