The Hindu : International : ASEAN dilemma over Myanmar drags on

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Wednesday, Jun 22, 2005

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International

ASEAN dilemma over Myanmar drags on

P. S. Suryanarayana

Suu Kyi's birth anniversary celebrations placed Yangon in an awkward position

SINGAPORE: The worldwide celebration of the 60th birth anniversary of Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's pro-democracy leader, once again placed the military government in Yangon in an awkward position last weekend.

However, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has not yet indicated its decision on Myanmar's credentials to chair the group in 2006. The ASEAN Foreign Ministers agreed in April to defer a final decision on whether or not Myanmar should assume the chairmanship of the regional outfit for 2006. As a collective entity, ASEAN then left it to Myanmar, a member, to decide "soon" whether it would want to press its case for chairmanship, given the unease among several of the group's major dialogue-partners about allowing the Yangon regime to preside over it.

ASEAN's overall move of placing the ball in Myanmar's court was accepted by it, even as the group used the diplomatic prose that "it would be best to decouple the two issues" - namely, Myanmar's turn to chair ASEAN next year and the association's practice of non-interference in the domestic affairs of its member-countries.

According to Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo, there was, on that occasion, "great reluctance" on ASEAN's part "to take away Myanmar's [possible] chairmanship," as that might only set "a bad precedent".

At the same time, ASEAN was "in danger of being dragged into Myanmar's internal politics because of the chairmanship issue which, in turn, could complicate Myanmar's internal political situation". ASEAN's dilemma will be compounded if Yangon were now to press its claim to chair ASEAN, under the rotation principle, by hoping that the United Nations' appeal for Ms. Suu Kyi's release from prolonged detention might not be translated into serious action.

As for the other possibility of a more balanced view by Yangon, the Myanmar leaders recently told Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong that theirs was "not a selfish country" and that they would take into account ASEAN's views and consider its interests.

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