ASEAN will rival the West: Myanmar

ASEAN will rival the West: Myanmar

YANGON (AFP): The chief of Myanmar's ruling junta has marked Yangon's entry into ASEAN by declaring that the regional grouping would soon grow in stature to rival the western bloc, official press reported yesterday.

Senior General Than Shwe, chairman of the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), warned that efforts were being made to undermine ASEAN unity, the New Light of Myanmar daily reported.

"In view of the most prosperous future of the Asia and the Pacific region including southeast Asia into the 21st century, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will become a rival of the western bloc," he said.

"Under the circumstances attempts are being made in collusion to hinder the progress of ASEAN and keep it in disarray and divided," he was quoted as telling executives of the junta's mass organization on Tuesday.

Myanmar, along with Laos, was admitted into ASEAN last week at the group's 30th annual meeting in Kuala Lumpur, despite objections from western nations critical of the SLORC human rights record and suppression of democracy.

ASEAN now groups nine nations -- Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- one short of the group's vision of an ASEAN-10 including Cambodia.

Than Shwe said that in the interests of national political and economic development and regional friendship, Myanmar could not afford to remain isolated from its neighbors.

ASEAN had been formed with "noble aims" such as promoting economic, social and cultural development and to safeguard political and economic stability "without harming the sovereignty of others," Than Shwe said.

Western dialog partners, some of whom have been seeking to force change in Myanmar by isolating the SLORC, urged ASEAN in Kuala Lumpur this week to push harder for democratic reform in Myanmar.