Indonesia stays mum on Suu Kyi's arrest

Indonesia stays mum on Suu Kyi's arrest

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia has decided not to make a statement for or against the
arrest of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, saying its
opinion on the issue would be delivered to Myanmar behind closed
doors.

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said on
Monday that his Myanmar counterpart had sent an explanation
letter regarding the case.

"In their terminology, it was called temporary detention, of
course I will reply to explain Indonesia's stance and suggestion
as a friendly neighbor and member of ASEAN," Hassan said, without
elaborating.

Both Indonesia and Myanmar are member countries of Association
of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN), whose foreign ministers are
slated to have their annual meeting next week in Phnom Penh.

Hassan expressed hopes that the situation in Myanmar would not
hamper the ministerial meeting, where Indonesia will assume the
ASEAN presidency.

"With the status of temporary detention, we hope it will not
jeopardize the coming meeting," the minister said.

Myanmar opposition leader and winner of the Nobel peace prize
Suu Kyi was taken into custody by the military government early
this month.

Unconfirmed reports said that Suu Kyi was injured in the clash
between her followers and government supporters, that preceded
the arrest.

The Philippines and Thailand had earlier expressed concerns
over the safety of the pro-democracy leader and summoned Myanmar
ambassadors to the two countries to seek an explanation over the
incident.

International relations commentator Dewi Fortuna Anwar said
that with the non-interference principle of ASEAN, it was
understandable that Indonesia would refrain from comment on the
situation in Yangon.

She said that while it was impossible to expect the government
to criticize Myanmar, she suggested that any democratic person in
society, especially in democratic countries like Indonesia, the
Philippines and Thailand, should keep the pressure up against the
arrest.

"Public pressure can have an influence on the governments of
ASEAN member countries to bring the issue to a closed door
meeting between them," Dewi told The Jakarta Post.

"The society should speak louder against the arrest to make
those governments push Myanmar to discuss the matter," she
remarked.

She added that it was about time for ASEAN to modify the non-
interference principle to further improve the ability of ASEAN in
the future.

Hassan also suggested that for an organization that has been
together for more than three decades, each member country should
be more mature in discussing their internal political problems.

"That is why we plan to propose an ASEAN security community as
an advance political cooperation among member countries to
discuss these kinds of problems," the minister said.