ASEAN snub West's call to keep out Myanmar
ASEAN snub West's call to keep out Myanmar
By Nick Cumming-Bruce
BANGKOK: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), left more determined than deterred by Western disapproval, is going ahead with plans to admit Myanmar as a full member in July along with strife-torn Cambodia and the tiny, landlocked nation of Laos.
The decision taken by ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur rebuffs a letter reportedly sent by U.S. vice-president Al Gore setting out Washington's objections to Myanmar's early admission.
The U.S. and European Union have both cautioned ASEAN that its standing as one of the world's most highly-regarded regional groupings may be compromised by giving diplomatic comfort to Myanmar at a time when the ruling junta's unrelenting abuse of human rights is making it a target for escalating Western action. The regime's reputation is further tarnished by Myanmar's status as one of the world's biggest heroin suppliers.
ASEAN leaders also dismissed a video-taped appeal sent by Burmese pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to defer Myanmar's membership until the junta undertook political reform. She warned Myanmar's admission would only make its ruling generals "more obdurate and oppressive than ever".
A number of ASEAN countries were uneasy about admitting Cambodia at a time when bitter conflict between its co-prime ministers is fueling a new surge in political violence that analysts fear could erupt into open warfare.
ASEAN's new admissions, raising membership to 10 countries, will fulfill its original members' long-held desire to turn it into a geographically comprehensive Southeast Asian bloc in time for the 30th anniversary of the association's formation.
The decision to admit Myanmar is a mark of the self-confidence of a group set up at the time of the Vietnam War to prevent tensions and rivalry among Southeast Asia's non-Communist countries -- Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines -- spilling into open conflict.
Their success later brought in tiny Brunei and paved the way after the Cold War for the admission of former enemy Vietnam as a full member last year. It has also seen ASEAN emerge as a hub for fast expanding contacts between East Asia and the West and for attempts to engage China on a range of diplomatic, security and economic issues.
In response to Western concerns, ASEAN leaders have emphasized they do not consider human rights as a criterion for admission of new members and consider "constructive engagement" a more productive approach than sanctions. Regional analysts say they are in any event more concerned to check the risk of an isolated Myanmar drifting into a Chinese orbit.
The group's foreign ministers appear to have devoted little time even to discussing Myanmar in Kuala Lumpur. "We made the decision for the good and benefit of ASEAN," Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Badawi said. "We believe that (Myanmar) will be better if it is with ASEAN."
Cambodia, where factional conflict is jeopardizing investments by ASEAN businessmen and could hamper its ability to meet economic conditions of entry, appears to have featured more prominently in their deliberations.
ASEAN's announcement, however, coincided with another rise in tension over a call by Second Prime Minister Hun Sen for prosecution of those responsible for a major shipment of weaponry to his senior co-premier Prince Norodom Ranariddh's party Funcinpec.
ASEAN leaders have proved ineffectual in trying to check the co-prime ministers' mutual antagonism and will be hoping there is no major eruption of violence overshadowing the formal admission of the three new members on July 23.
-- The Guardian