ASEAN noninterference needs reconsidering

The ASEAN policy of noninterference has long afforded members of our little community the opportunity to misbehave in the certain knowledge that if the neighbors saw something, they would insist that they had not. The policy enabled us to sit by as wrongs were committed but left us speechless with rage and frustration when the consequences were visited upon us.

The brand of noninterference that prevails in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been a handy one for the more politically backward members of the club. It said blankly that what goes on within the borders of a country is a matter for that country alone, and the neighbors had better respect that. It followed that solidarity was a good thing because a united ASEAN could tell Western critics of humans rights abuses and the like to keep their long noses out of affairs that do not even interest the locals.

Human rights is a difficult issue for ASEAN, particularly for its conferral of membership on the junta in Rangoon (Yangon), as opposed to Burma (Myanmar) and its people. That awfully backward step can be attributed to an ASEAN led by people who preferred not to notice that the regime abuses its people and exports problems, such as drugs. Such blindness is not universal: The international community will not talk to the junta no matter how often ASEAN tries to play matchmaker.

The international community is unlikely to look any more fondly upon the junta until it changes its ways and ceases to be a regional embarrassment.

-- The Bangkok Post