Lawmakers urge ASEAN leaders to get tough with Myanmar

Lawmakers urge ASEAN leaders to get tough with Myanmar

Sean Yoong, Associated Press/Kuala Lumpur

Southeast Asian lawmakers urged their governments on Friday to stop being polite to Myanmar at an upcoming regional summit and end a policy of not meddling in the military-ruled government's internal affairs.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will lose its credibility if Myanmar's junta remains slow to implement real democratic reforms and release political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said regional parliamentarians opening a meeting in Kuala Lumpur to discuss how to improve the situation in Myanmar.

"ASEAN governments need to seriously review the relevance of the so-called noninterference principle," said Zaid Ibrahim, a Malaysian government legislator and chairman of the ASEAN Inter- Parliamentary Caucus on Democracy in Myanmar, a group not affiliated with ASEAN.

"We should not be willing to politely ignore the misbehavior of a neighbor when the consequences are interfering with our own internal and regional stability," he said.

Some 30 lawmakers from Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand were attending the two-day conference in Kuala Lumpur, which will also host ASEAN's annual leaders' summit on Dec. 12 to Dec. 14.

ASEAN nations typically follow a policy of noninterference in each other's domestic affairs, and ASEAN has long said that persuasion -- not sanctions -- is the best way to deal with Myanmar's regime.

Tint Swe, a member of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, said ASEAN could send a signal to Myanmar by openly voicing support for recent U.S. efforts to put Myanmar on the UN Security Council's agenda for the first time because of its human rights abuses.

"ASEAN's constructive engagement policy with Myanmar will not show results," Tint Swe said. "It is time for the leaders of ASEAN countries to speak up now. Without the support of ASEAN, the regime (in Myanmar) will be isolated."

Washington says Myanmar warrants council action because of the potential destabilization from its international narcotics trafficking, human rights practices, and internal repression which has led many of its people to flee the country.

Nazri Aziz, Malaysia's minister for parliamentary affairs, said ASEAN leaders are "tied to diplomatic rules" that restrict their ability to pressure Myanmar's government.

But speaking in his personal capacity as a parliamentarian, Nazri said the junta's disregard for human rights "reminds us of the days of Hitler and Stalin."

"Would you like to do business with governments belonging to Hitler and Stalin?" Nazri said. "We cannot be thinking just about business, while basic human rights are being abused everyday. I don't think I would want to do business with the devil."

The current junta came to power in Myanmar in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy uprising. It called a 1990 general election but refused to hand over power after Suu Kyi's party won.