No summit for Myanmar

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.