ASEAN noninterference needs reconsidering

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