The Philippines’ failure on Myanmar is existential for Asean 

The Philippines’ term as Asean chair is in a tailspin as Secretary of Foreign Affairs Theresa Lazaro brings a disastrous combination of timidity and poor judgement to her role as special envoy of the Asean chair on Myanmar.

Special envoy Lazaro rewarded the Myanmar military junta’s bloodshed and recalcitrance by agreeing to convene an informal meeting of Asean foreign ministers with the junta’s ‘foreign minister’, hosted on 12 July in junta-friendly Thailand.

In a baffling move by the Philippines’ most senior diplomat, Lazaro agreed to the meeting without extracting a single concession from junta leader and accused war criminal Min Aung Hlaing. Lazaro did not even request a pause in the junta’s atrocity campaign against civilians for the meeting’s short duration.

According to reports by the Karen Peace Support Network, junta air strikes targeting Mutraw district in Karen State on 12 July injured four people, including an eight-year-old boy.

Five years after the high watermark of a five-point consensus, Asean appears adamant on adding humiliation of its own making to the junta’s open contempt for the bloc’s ham-fisted efforts at brokering an end to Myanmar’s military-triggered crises.

The Bangkok meeting ended Asean’s ban on high-level engagement with senior junta officials, a measure in place since 2021 after Min Aung Hlaing reneged on the five-point consensus before the ink was even dry.

Malaysia, which worked hard to build bridges with legitimate Myanmar stakeholders during its term as Asean chair last year, had the awareness to send a lower-ranked official to the meeting.

Singapore Foreign Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan – conscious of the catastrophe his country will inherit next year as Asean chair – pressed the “central importance” of the five-point consensus and the need for “demonstrable progress” by the junta.

The world is watching Asean’s implosion on Myanmar with growing alarm.

Just last week, the UN Human Rights Council, in its new resolution on the situation of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar, expressed deep concern at the military junta’s lack of progress in implementing the five-point consensus.

The council also called on Asean to engage in inclusive dialogue with the National Unity Government, ethnic organisations and broader civil society and affected populations, including Rohingya and other minorities.

Asean foreign ministers must use their approaching meeting in Manila, running 20-22 July, to stem their self-inflicted damage and to salvage Asean’s shredded reputation.

Asean must immediately restore its blanket ban on engagement with senior junta officials and demand the full and immediate implementation of the five-point consensus, including the cessation of all junta violence, the unconditional release of all political prisoners, and the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to all persons in need.

The junta’s new proxy ‘parliament’ has rejected the five-point consensus, so Asean should move swiftly to develop a new operating framework with a clear end game. This must include an escalating series of consequences triggered by continued junta non-compliance with the five-point consensus.

Asean foreign ministers should also convene a series of formal consultations with Myanmar’s legitimate democratic stakeholders, given their professed commitment to facilitating a peaceful solution based on the genuine will and aspirations of the Myanmar people.

These meetings should assemble the full membership of the Steering Council for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic, Union including the National Unity Government, ethnic organisations, Myanmar civil society and representatives of minority communities, including those who have been forced to leave Myanmar.

Asean’s failure on Myanmar while the country burns and the junta entrenches itself poses serious questions about the bloc’s durability. Next week’s foreign ministers’ meeting demands a reset. Myanmar lives and Asean’s own future depend on it.

This statement is issued by Malaysian MP and former foreign minister Dato’ Sri Saifuddin Abdullah, former Thai foreign minister Khun Kasit Piromya and three former UN experts on Myanmar who are founding members of the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M)

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