ASEAN vows to boost image but quiet on Myanmar
ASEAN vows to boost image but quiet on Myanmar
HANOI (Agencies): Information ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) vowed on Friday to boost the group's image but declined to address the biggest international criticism leveled against it -- its inaction over Myanmar.
In two days of talks here, the ASEAN ministers agreed "an immediate program of action" was essential to "address the current image problem," a final statement said.
"Ministers strongly recommended that in view of current perceptions about ASEAN and their effects on its image and work, ASEAN should plan and formulate strategies ... to advance and reinforce a positive international profile," it said.
"We have agreed on several action plans to restore confidence back to ASEAN and to put up a united front to counter negative media reporting," Brunei's Culture Minister Hussein Mohamad Yusof told the closing session of a meeting in Hanoi seeking ways to brush up the regional bloc's image.
Asked by reporters if ASEAN's image was not more in the hands of military-ruled Myanmar and its treatment of its pro-democracy opposition than ASEAN as whole, he replied: "No comment".
The representatives of all ASEAN 10-member countries remained silent when asked at a later news conference whether they were united in a policy not to send a team to mediate in Myanmar.
ASEAN Secretary-General Rodolfo Severino said the question should be addressed to foreign ministers.
ASEAN agreed in July in Bangkok to form a "troika" of three members to try to help resolve political and security disputes.
Last month, Thailand's The Nation newspaper quoted diplomats as saying United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan had suggested the troika help in Myanmar, where the opposition leadership was being held under house arrest.
On Thursday, Severino told Reuters there was "no question of mediation", but Supatra Masdit, a minister in the Thai prime minister's office, said she was for mediation and this should be discussed at foreign ministry level.
Asked if Malaysia supported mediation, its information minister Khalil Yaakob referred to a mission led by UN special envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail, a former Malaysian diplomat.
"The fact that Malaysia agrees to the appointment of one of our foremost diplomats appointed by the UN shows we are contributing to any effort, to any improvement in the situation," Khalil said.
ASEAN has a policy of not interfering in the internal affairs of member nations, which has consistently rankled the European Union and Washington.
Current holder of the revolving ASEAN chairmanship Vietnam, has along with other members steadfastly opposed proposals to send a troika of foreign ministers to Yangon.
Severino insisted that the issue of intervention in Myanmar was outside the information ministers' remit.
"The ASEAN troika, as you know, is an instrumentality of the foreign ministers and I think any question of the troika will have to be addressed by them," he said.
He said there were other areas where the grouping had failed to get its message across and where more effective public relations could improve its image.
He cited as an example the massive forest fires which have raged across the region, most notably in 1997, and the effective measures ASEAN had taken to counter them.
"The problem received a great deal of the attention but the measures to resolve them did not receive any." Severino said the same had been true of ASEAN's efforts to forge greater regional economic integration.
Ministers also agreed to defer a proposed ASEAN satellite TV channel indefinitely after complaints from some members about the costs. "It's not been canceled altogether," Severino said. But "resources are by their nature limited."
Instead ASEAN will seek to strengthen the existing exchange of programming between member states as well as boosting the airtime it receives for its work.