ASEAN to tell Myanmar to buck up

ASEAN to tell Myanmar to buck up

Reuters, Kuala Lumpur

Southeast Asian leaders may formally urge Myanmar to speed up
democratic reform at a summit in Malaysia but will not set a
deadline for the country's military rulers, Indonesia's foreign
minister said on Sunday.

"We are still discussing (a statement on Myanmar)," Hassan
Wirayuda told Reuters.

Asked whether it would set specific targets for Myanmar to
work on, he said:

"For the time being, we can't expect the timelines to be
established," he said on Sunday ahead of a summit of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"But at least in our discussion, we expect the process in
Myanmar could produce tangible results. We measure in terms of
tangible results," he said.

In a related development, Malaysia said on Sunday that ASEAN
wants to send an envoy to visit Myanmar opposition leader Suu
Kyi, marking an extraordinary step by its own gentle standards of
diplomacy.

The regional grouping usually avoids involvement in member
states' affairs but is running out of patience with military-
ruled Myanmar, saying it feels embarrassed at the junta's lack of
progress toward democracy.

"You see Myanmar has always asked us to speak on their behalf.
I think we have done that for a long time," Foreign Minister Syed
Hamid Albar told Reuters in an interview ahead of an ASEAN summit
that begins on Monday.

"We cannot be keeping on promising people, yes, we have seen
them and, yes, they are committed to the road-map. We must be
able to come back to ourselves and say, yes, I have met Aung San
Suu Kyi, yes, I have met with some of the political leaders, and
they are really undertaking their own political reconciliation."

Malaysia is the current chair of ASEAN and plans to send Syed
Hamid to Myanmar to gauge progress toward the country's "road-map
to democracy", which is seen as a sham by Western critics. Suu
Kyi has been under house arrest since 2003.

ASEAN leaders have come under increased U.S. pressure to take
a tougher stand on Myanmar, which was pressured into skipping its
turn to chair the 10-member grouping next year because U.S. and
European diplomats might have boycotted ASEAN's proceedings.

The United Nations Security Council agreed on Dec. 2 for the
first time to discuss human rights in Myanmar after its rulers
extended the house arrest of Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi for a
year.

Pressed for a date by which he expected to travel to Myanmar,
Syed Hamid said only it would be better sooner rather than later.

"This is not an easy question," the former lawyer said. "But
it is subject to Myanmar themselves agreeing. This shows that we
cannot interfere in the sovereignty of another nation. It is up
to them. But I think it is positive and very constructive if they
open up."

He noted that Razali Ismail, the UN Secretary-General's
Malaysian special envoy to Myanmar, had not been permitted to
visit the country for a long time.

"He is not welcome to go to Myanmar to finish his report to
say what progress has been made. So I think the other vehicle is
among us, among friends and colleagues, where we could become a
very positive contribution."

But ASEAN was wary of being seen to interfere in Myanmar's
affairs, said Syed Hamid, 61, who has been Malaysia's foreign
minister since January 1999.