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.