Row over Yangon highlights rift in Asian, British values

Row over Yangon highlights rift in Asian, British values

By Nick Cumming-Bruce and Ian Black

BANGKOK/LONDON: In a setback for his human rights offensive,
the British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, received a rebuke from
the Malaysian prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, Tuesday for
refusing to invite Myanmar to next year's Asia-Europe summit in
London.

European sanctions against Myanmar made its attendance
"impossible", Cook insisted in Singapore after a tour of four
countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The Foreign Secretary lambasted Myanmar's military junta as a
"deeply repressive regime" that was the world's biggest producer
of opium.

But Mahathir, an often prickly protagonist of developing
countries' interests, retorted Tuesday: "If there is
discrimination against (Myanmar), it is a discrimination against
ASEAN. You may find other countries in ASEAN also deciding not to
attend."

British officials insisted they were neither perturbed nor
surprised by Malaysia's support for Myanmar, which itself lashed
out at Cook for what one official in Yangon called "the century's
greatest hypocritical statement" and blamed Myanmar's drug
problem on British colonial rule.

One diplomat said: "We have consistently worked for change in
Myanmar and we want to work with ASEAN countries in bringing that
about. The Malaysians see things differently from us."

Following Cook's high-profile tour, the British Foreign Office
insists that despite the clash between "Asian values" and an
active new British human rights agenda, the tightrope between the
two -- which includes a precarious balancing act on British arms
sales to Indonesia -- can be walked.

Yet Mahathir's angry response exposes a potentially awkward
glitch for Cook. Part of the purpose of his trip was to polish
Britain's credentials as a business partner, particularly as a
bridge to Europe, emphasizing Labor's engagement in the EU.

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM summit) in April, during
Britain's EU presidency, would bring to London the 16 EU heads of
government along with China, Japan, South Korea and most of the
nine members of ASEAN, and neatly fitted this bill. But expanding
membership of ASEAN and the EU has opened up an issue Malaysia
finds contentious.

Mahathir's comment was "a bit more blunt and in your face than
we've seen up till now but it's consistent with what they've been
saying for the past six months", one diplomat said.

Malaysia's hardline posture on human rights also augurs badly
for next month's Commonwealth summit in Edinburgh, when
difficulties are expected in achieving consensus on further
action against Nigeria, still condemned internationally for its
domestic repression and lack of movement towards democracy.

ASEAN admitted Myanmar in July as a full member of its
influential regional club -- alongside Brunei, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam --
brushing off mainly Western criticism that Myanmar's generals
would take this as tacit endorsement of their brutal suppression
of the pro-democracy opposition.

In fact ASEAN countries also have their own problems with
Myanmar but say they favor "constructive engagement" and shun
interfering in their neighbors' internal affairs.

But Mahathir appears to have gone out on a limb in warning of
ASEAN withdrawals from the London summit. Officials in Thailand,
which hosted the first summit, point out that membership of ASEAN
or the EU does not automatically bestow membership of ASEM, as
Mahathir infers.

"Myanmar's elevation to ASEAN was a single ticket affair,"
said a spokesman for the European Commission. "Membership of
ASEAN does not mean automatic membership of ASEM. It is up to the
Asian members of ASEM to propose other Asian members and for the
EU to approve their participation."

"You know Mahathir," said a senior ASEAN diplomat, "I think
he's expressing his own view on this. There has been no ASEAN
consensus on this issue."

-- The Guardian