ASEAN to admit Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar

JAKARTA (JP): The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed here yesterday to simultaneously admit Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar as full ASEAN members, but differed on the timing.

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas told a press conference at the closing of the one-day ASEAN informal summit that the simultaneous entrance would help realize the ideal of an ASEAN comprising all 10 Southeast Asian nations.

"At this meeting, it was agreed by all heads of state that the three countries should enter ASEAN as full members at the same time. As to the exact timing of their entry, that will be announced in due time," Alatas said.

To this end, Alatas said, the ASEAN leaders agreed to request the relevant ASEAN bodies to continue with the necessary technical and procedural steps for the eventual admission of the three countries.

When asked about Myanmar's human rights record, Alatas maintained that none of the seven members of ASEAN was opposed to admitting Yangon. The only difference to emerge was on when to grant it full membership into the group, Alatas said.

"Everybody agrees that Myanmar should become a member of ASEAN. Whatever nuances of differences there were in the past were about timing, about exactly when Myanmar would come in," Alatas said.

The issue of Myanmar's admission into the grouping has dominated ASEAN since the military government in Yangon cracked down on Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's democratic movement in April.

Western nations and human rights activists have said that accepting Myanmar's application for full membership in ASEAN would be tantamount to approving Yangon's policies.

When asked whether human rights was a consideration by ASEAN, Philippines President Fidel V. Ramos said in a press conference: "The Philippines is concerned about human rights, in the Philippines."

He said ASEAN is more concerned about the level of economic development in the three countries. He added that ASEAN countries had agreed to facilitate Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to qualify for ASEAN membership.

ASEAN follows a strict policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of member nations, and officially maintains that constructive engagement with Myanmar is the best way to foster political reform there. Isolating Yangon would be counterproductive, its leaders argue.

At a separate press conference, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said ASEAN countries did consider human rights records in Myanmar but argued that "it depends on how you define human rights".

He said the "constructive engagement" approach employed by ASEAN in the Myanmar issue has been effective in helping open the country wider to the outside world.

"It (Myanmar) is now much more open. It is now willing to have foreign direct investment. It has contacts with ASEAN where before it was isolationist, practicing the Burmese (Myanmarese) way of socialism.

"So, if anybody says that constructive engagement has no effect on Myanmar, they must be thoroughly blind. The fact is that there is a lot of ... changes taking place in Myanmar.

"We feel quite sure that if we continued with that policy, in the future there will be more changes for the better," he said.

Myanmar Foreign Minister U Ohn Gyaw told yet another press conference that Yangon had wanted to become part of ASEAN since the grouping's inception in 1967.

"But at that time we were not yet ready to join," he said.

"Since 1988, however, we have changed our political system, economic system, and also social system. By doing so, we are ready to take part in the affairs of the region," Gyaw said.

He said Myanmar wants to be admitted as a full member of ASEAN, along with Cambodia and Laos, in the next ASEAN ministerial meeting in Kuala Lumpur next year. (rid/mds/pwn)