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