ASEAN's right to invite playboy to the party

ASEAN's right to invite playboy to the party

"Even a playboy can become a good husband after his marriage,
with the family's help." Thai Foreign Minister Prachuab
Chaiyasan's unusual analogy helps to explain why the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has decided to admit Burma to
the regional group. Predictably, the decision has been greeted by
a chorus of outrage from the Western media. It is no secret that
public opinion in the West is strongly against the ruling
military junta in Burma. But the Thai foreign minister begs to
differ. By using that analogy, he is implicitly acknowledging
that Burma's ruling military junta has been guilty of gross human
rights violations.

But he would probably say he hopes the junta's
authoritarianism will be mellowed and, in due course, transformed
by prosperity. And he believes ASEAN's soft-line approach is the
best way to bring this about. Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro
Hashimoto, who supports the ASEAN decision, has warned Burma's
leaders that they have not been pardoned; they will still be
watched.

Pro-democracy activists in Burma, led by Nobel laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi, claim the constructive engagement practiced by ASEAN
has not worked. But the confrontational stance adopted by the
West has not only failed, it has been counter-productive in Burma
and elsewhere.

We welcome ASEAN's decision to admit Burma, along with
Cambodia and Laos, next month because we subscribe to the ASEAN
policy of constructive engagement. Isolating Burma is not the
answer.

At the same time, we hope that once Burma joins the regional
group, other ASEAN member countries will do everything they can
to convince the ruling junta to change its ways -- like the
playboy in the Thai foreign minister's analogy.

-- Hong Kong Standard