Malaysian NGOs protest Myanmar's membership
Malaysian NGOs protest Myanmar's membership
KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysian non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) protested peacefully outside the foreign
ministry here yesterday against the proposed admission of army-
ruled Myanmar into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN).
About a dozen activists wore black vests reading "No SLORC,"
referring to Yangon's military junta, the State Law and Order
Restoration Council, during the protest on the eve of an ASEAN
ministerial meeting here.
They carried posters branding SLORC "murderers, criminals and
drug traffickers" and calling on the military junta to "respect
1990 election result."
Another read: "Down with SLORC, freedom to Burma."
Burma is the former name of Myanmar.
SLORC ignored results of a 1990 election in which the
opposition National League for Democracy, headed by Nobel peace
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, won by a landslide.
The protesters, who held up a portrait of Suu Kyi, belong to
the Burma Solidarity Group Malaysia, an umbrella body of 22 NGOs.
They later submitted a memorandum to Malaysian Foreign Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Malaysia is the current chairman of ASEAN, which also includes
Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam.
ASEAN foreign ministers meet here today to decide on the
timing of the entry of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. The three
countries are expected to gain admission into ASEAN this year.
ASEAN, rejecting Western moves to isolate Myanmar, prefers a
policy of "constructive engagement" with the Yangon junta,
combining quiet diplomacy and increased economic contact to bring
it into the international mainstream.
In Manila the head of the Philippines Senate foreign relations
committee said yesterday that Myanmar should not be allowed to
join ASEAN until its rulers ended their "brutal repression".
"The Senate foreign relations committee strongly condemned the
brutal repression going on in Myanmar and demanded rectification
of this policy before Burma's admission to ASEAN could be
seriously considered," he said in a statement.
The Philippine government backs the consensus of ASEAN that
whatever the practices of Myanmar's military rulers, the country
stands more chance of improving if it is brought into the group
than isolated.
In Singapore, the opposition Singapore Democratic Party, or
SDP, has become the country's second political party to challenge
the government to take a firm stand against the present military
regime, a party official said yesterday.
In a statement issued to the media, the SDP also called on
ASEAN not to admit Myanmar as a member during talks in Kuala
Lumpur.
"The SLORC regime has shown complete disregard of human
decency by continuing its brutal rule of the Burmese people," the
SDP statement said. "The formal inclusion of the pariah regime
brings not an ounce of good nor credibility to ASEAN."