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)