Asian tyrants

ASEAN has long held to a policy of noninterference in the affairs of it members and prospective members. But the July 5 coup by the Cambodia strongman Hun Sen shocked the organization into abandoning that approach. ASEAN this past week admitted Burma and Laos but postponed Cambodia's entry while sending mediators to seek a restoration of some semblance of democracy.

This policy change reflects an important new understanding that the United States, too, is coming to, though fitfully: that a dictatorship in one country is destabilizing to neighbors, and that world and regional stability depend on the spread of openness and tolerance. In Southeast Asia, Burma's policy of slave labor forces refugees into Thailand and Bangladesh; the narco-thug connections of regimes in both Burma and Cambodia spill over into other Asian nations; their instability and corruption discourage investment throughout the region. No wonder Malaysia's deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, recently called on ASEAN to consider a policy of constructive interventions."

Making these effective requires flexible approaches. In Cambodia, Mr. Hun Sen will soon seek to legitimate his coup by convening the National Assembly, which, duly cowed by the butchery of officials opposed to his regime, will name a new puppet prime minister. Japan, sadly, seems ready to accept this constitutional fig leaf and resume aid to the government, sending a wrong signal not only to Mr. Hun Sen but to any other would-be usurper. The United States is right to insist on a return of real democracy and a guarantee of free elections next year before resuming aid.

-- The Washington Post