Suu Kyi's sixth year

Aung San Suu Kyi, an outspoken leader of the Myanmarese political movement, enters her sixth year under house arrest this week.

Suu Kyi, a daughter of Myanmarese national hero, Aung San, has been held without trial all this time by the military junta, known by SLORC, the acronym for State Law and Order Restoration Council. Her only crime: Leading the National League for Democracy party towards a landslide victory in the 1990 democratic general election.

There have been a lot of strong protests heard since Wednesday from many Western leaders and human rights groups but -- God knows why -- no such fuss has been heard from this part of our beloved planet earth.

In Yangon, in an apparent effort to mute the world's condemnation, SLORC's leader Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, told a Japanese newspaper on Wednesday that his junta would release Suu Kyi from arrest if she agreed to leave the country for five years.

Unfortunately, that offer is likely to sound like little more than a cruel hoax to the uncompromising Suu Kyi, who has become the conscience of the Myanmarese people. And yet, it clearly bears the message that the SLORC needs a face-saving arrangement to eventually return what it has taken from the people.

Since SLORC's initial moves, Western leaders have been calling for isolation and sanctions to force the Myanmarese junta to return to their senses and honor the result of the 1990 elections. Human rights groups, U.S. President Bill Clinton and the UN special monitor of Human Rights in Myanmar, agree that the Myanmarese military regime has one of the most dismal human rights records of any leadership on earth. The SLORC, which was formed in 1988 after a brutal suppression of the people's will, has even been accused of open cooperation with opium producers.

Many countries believe that what the junta has done to its people is a serious crime against humanity, but the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has chosen its own "constructive engagement" towards the regime. Members of the regional grouping claim that they have their own attitudes toward human rights, based on their own experiences. And some people within this region have also said that ASEAN should not go so far as to intervene into another country's internal problems.

However, the presence of the regime which has annulled democratic elections at home as a special guest of host Thailand at the Association's meeting now underway in Bangkok, has left us with the impression that, despite the disclaimers, some sort of intervention into Myanmarese internal issues may be in the offing.

No matter how ceremonial the SLORC's presence is meant to be at the ASEAN meeting, it could unavoidably tarnish the organization's image as a grouping of democratic countries, which, in their own ways, respect universal rights.

In relation to this, it is clear at this time that if any of the ASEAN member countries are eying economic cooperation with the military-ruled Myanmar, they should realize that they would appear much wiser and more ethical of they acted on this desire after the country has become a democratic economy.

To counter any suspicions, the best thing ASEAN could do right now is to nudge SLORC toward respecting Aung San Suu Kyi's basic rights and into easing democracy back into place.

Indonesia, which is now leading the Non-Aligned Movement and has been successful in many diplomatic efforts, is in the best position to sponsor such a step.