No summit for Myanmar

We urge the leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) not to allow the leader of Myanmar's junta to attend next week's ASEAN summit in Bali unless the generals in Yangon release prodemocracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi without condition before the summit commences.

Admittedly, such a dramatic diplomatic step has never before been taken in this region, but this newspaper is of the opinion that this is the price the junta should pay for its stubborn defiance in the face of repeated calls from ASEAN leaders to release Suu Kyi.

The world will laugh at the regional grouping if ASEAN leaders allow the junta leader to attend the summit in Bali while Suu Kyi remains under house arrest in Yangon. Myanmar is not so important to this region that the leaders have to risk their own credibility by laying out the red carpet for the junta.

Myanmar's junta has humiliated both Indonesia and ASEAN with its stubborn rejection of appeals by Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who is also the ASEAN chairwoman, to free Suu Kyi after her discharge from the hospital last week.

The President's special envoy, Ali Alatas, was not even allowed to meet with Suu Kyi when he visited Yangon last week. Even more insulting, in response to the President's call for her freedom, Suu Kyi was put under house arrest for third time since 1989.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo have also demanded Suu Kyi's release.

We praise President Megawati for her strong message on Myanmar. Indonesia's leadership in ASEAN is at stake if she fails to force Myanmar junta to fulfill the grouping's demands. Because of her own experiences, it is not excessive to say that Megawati understands better than any other regional leader the suffering of being oppressed by an authoritarian regime.

The military junta can no longer hide behind the pretext of noninterference because the problems caused by the junta no longer affect only the people of Myanmar, the majority of whom voted for Suu Kyi in 1990 elections.

We wish to remind the junta in Yangon that they were the ones who confidently allowed Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party to contest the 1990 elections. They also were the ones who refused to hand over power to the NLD.

The behavior of Myanmar's generals and their brutal oppression of the opposition not only affects that country, but also its neighbors. Amid the democratic reform in major member countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, the existence of a junta in this region tarnishes the positive ASEAN image.

We hope that during the Bali summit the regional leaders can concentrate their discussions on strategic economic, political and security issues, and that their concentration is not disrupted by "irrelevant issues" -- in the words of the highly respected diplomat Ali Alatas -- such as the junta's arrogance toward the more senior regional leaders.

Myanmar's military regime still has a few days to act responsibly toward its neighbors. If they decide to continue defying ASEAN's demand, the group has no choice but to demonstrate that ASEAN is too important to be belittled by a group of Myanmarese generals who want to maintain their grip on the country.