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Asean looks to India, China to free Suu Kyi

P.S. Suryanarayana

The search now is for an Asian solution, different from the west's prescriptive approach to democracy.

— PHOTO: AP

A member of Myanmar's opposition National League for Democracy holds aloft a portrait of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

THE MYANMAR military junta's latest extension of the detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has few parallels in defiance of international opinion. In a sense, this has been made possible by the growing helplessness of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) in engaging Myanmar, a member-state. Myanmar's junta, styled the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has been acting as if military rule is a normal form of governance.

Asean has not given up efforts to persuade or pressure the SPDC to liberalise the political system in Myanmar. Yet the grouping, quite used to western jibes about its lack of collective political will to pressure Myanmar, is keen on a solution within a new Asian framework rather than under the ambit of the "Washington consensus" on democracy as the political imperative for economic development.

In this evolving context, Asean hopes to divest itself of a major part of its responsibility to China and India, the two Asian powers actively engaging the SPDC on the economic and defence fronts. Asean officials are, of course, reluctant to concede that they are seeking to pass the buck.

Asean's strategy can, in fact, be portrayed favourably as the search for an Asian solution in place of a western prescription.

Asean secretary-general Ong Keng Yong told this correspondent that a new initiative for Ms. Suu Kyi's "early release" could be explored on the basis of the SPDC's latest assertion that she "is no longer a factor" in Myanmar's current political process.

In focus are the SPDC's brand of "national reconciliation" and also "democratisation." The SPDC-sponsored process has been denounced by the west as a sham exercise. Yet Asean is willing to give the junta some benefit of the doubt. Confirming that Asean is now hoping to bank on the strategic reach of China and the political skills of India, Mr. Ong spoke of the possibility of de-linking the "humanitarian issue" of Ms. Suu Kyi's personal freedom from Myanmar's "internal affair of democratisation." Myanmar's military rulers are now beginning to say she is "no longer a threat" to their position. This might help the international community focus on her personal freedom on a priority basis.

Mr. Ong cited two reasons for looking to China and India. First, Asean itself has "no teeth" to act alone. The second and more important factor is that Beijing and New Delhi, acting independently, have networked with Myanmar in the areas of defence and economy for many years. So, "China and India have a lot of say" in Myanmar now, while the United States and the European Union have so far drawn a blank despite their prolonged sanctions against the SPDC.

The focus on Ms. Suu Kyi's personal freedom will still leave unanswered the huge imponderables about her post-release role in Myanmar. However, Asean is keen on cracking the logjam, if need be, by unorthodox means. For this, Beijing and New Delhi are reckoned to have some subtle leverage of the kind that the west, with its prescriptive approach to democracy, has failed to establish in Myanmar.

Regardless of India's interest in the democracy movement in neighbouring Nepal, some Asean insiders hope New Delhi might not be averse to persuading the SPDC to grant Ms. Suu Kyi just her personal freedom for now.

As for China, it has already rebuffed a U.S. move to create a consensus among the big powers in favour of a worldwide pro-democracy agenda. Yet, the hope in Asean circles is that China may be willing to catalyse an Asian approach towards Myanmar, without the supremacist agenda of the U.S.

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