ASEAN membership defended

ASEAN membership defended

SINGAPORE (AFP): ASEAN has not reached a stage where the principle of human rights can dictate membership in the regional club, Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said in remarks released here yesterday.

The remarks were made in an interview with Philippine journalists a day before ASEAN on May 31 decided to admit Myanmar ignoring western pressure to keep it out over alleged human rights abuses by the Rangoon junta.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos will join next month.

"Each one of us has our own perception of the degree of human rights," Goh said according to the transcript of the interview released here ahead of his visit to the Philippines next week.

"Core human rights, we in Singapore believe in that. But Myanmar? What about Cambodia? What about Laos? What about Philippines? Do we say that a country which ignores certain principles of human rights should leave ASEAN?

"We haven't come to that stage yet."