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."