Asean foreign ministers’ scheduled meeting with the Myanmar junta’s ‘foreign minister’ in Bangkok on Sunday, 12 July will undermine Asean’s own ‘five-point consensus’ and reward the junta’s bloodshed and recalcitrance.
It will embolden the junta even more to commit atrocities while granting it the legitimacy it needs to survive, says the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M).
“By so totally compromising itself, Asean stands on the precipice of irrelevance,” said SAC-M member Yanghee Lee.
For more than five years, accused war criminal and junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has treated Asean with open contempt.
For all its shortcomings, Asean’s five-point consensus remains the only framework through which the bloc has agreed to address Myanmar’s junta-induced crises.
In 2021, Asean took the commendable step of barring Min Aung Hlaing and senior junta officials from high-level meetings as punishment for reneging on the five-point consensus.
Just two weeks ago, the junta rejected a request by the Philippines’ Foreign Affairs Secretary and special envoy of the Asean chair on Myanmar, Theresa Lazaro, to meet with detained State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
In response, the Philippines, as Asean chair, asserted that the release of all political prisoners was “essential to advancing meaningful political dialogue as envisioned in the five-point consensus”.
Now, without extracting a single concession from the junta, Secretary Lazaro has announced that Asean foreign ministers will meet with the junta’s ‘foreign minister’ this weekend.
This inexplicable backflip exposes the folly of Asean’s constant negotiations against itself while Myanmar burns and the junta entrenches itself.
Since Min Aung Hlaing declared himself ‘president’ on 10 April off the back of illegitimate elections, he has intensified a nationwide atrocity campaign that has killed tens of thousands of civilians and displaced millions. Some 22,375 civilians remain in junta arbitrary detention.
There is still time for Secretary Lazaro to cancel the meeting and to maintain Asean’s ban on engagement with junta officials under the five-point consensus framework, specifically its demands for an immediate end to the junta’s violence, the unconditional release of all political prisoners, and the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to all of those in need.
If Asean goes ahead with the meeting this weekend, it is casting a vote of no-confidence in its own ability to handle the situation in Myanmar.
It is also burning any remaining goodwill with legitimate actors, including the Steering Council for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic Union, the National Unity Government, ethnic organisations, minority communities and Myanmar civil society.
By so completely abandoning its expressed commitment to supporting the will and aspirations of the Myanmar people, Asean would send a clear message to the international community: we have failed; over to you. – SAC-M
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
