5.10.03
ASEAN Heads of
State/Government,
Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Lao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand,
Vietnam
Your Majesty/ Royal
Highness/ Excellency,
Ninth ASEAN Summit and Bali
Concord II risk being marginalized and trivialized if the burning issues
of Burma are relegated to the backburner in the ASEAN Bali Summit
It has been reported
that following the failure of the 11th mission to Myanmar of
the United Nations envoy Tan Sri Razali Ismail, leaving Yangon
empty-handed unable to secure the release of Burmese Opposition Leader,
Aung San Suu Kyi or to break the political deadlock between the military
junta and the opposition, ASEAN officials have relegated the issues of
Burma to the backburner at the Ninth ASEAN Summit in Bali on October 7-8,
2003.
The Ninth ASEAN Summit and Bali Concord
II to pave the way for the creation of an ASEAN security and economic
community risk being marginalized and trivialized if the burning issues
of Burma, the freedom of the Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and
pro-democracy activists, democratization and national reconciliation, are
relegated to the backburner in the ASEAN Bali Summit.
The Bali Concord II,
which is to be signed by the ASEAN leaders at the 9th ASEAN
Summit in Bali next week, 27 years after the first Bali Concord of the
first ASEAN Summit, is to seal a new charter to mark a paradigm shift in
the evolution of ASEAN from a regional grouping of governments when it
was founded in 1967 into an ASEAN regional community based on “three
pillars”, the Asean Economic Community (AEC), the Asean Security Community
(ASC) and the Asean Social and Cultural Community.
The failure of
Razali’s latest mission to Myanmar has imperilled the grand vision of
the ASEAN Bali Summit to spearhead economic integration, political and
security co-operation and a caring society of the ASEAN countries to
create a strong and distinctive sense of ASEAN community, absent in the
36-year history of ASEAN..
In fact, with the
failure of the latest Razali mission, the conclusion of the Bali Concord
II with Myanmar as a founder member to proclaim the concept of an ASEAN
community will be a blatant contradiction of words and deeds and reduce
both the Asean Summit and the Bali Concord II into an international
mockery and farce.
The credibility,
integrity and legitimacy of Asean are at stake. The ASEAN summiteers in
Bali should either defer indefinitely the sealing of the Bali Concord II
to proclaim an Asean community until regional conditions are more
conducive with meaningful democratization in Burma, the release of Aung
San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners as well as tangible results in
the “roadmap to democracy”, or Myanmar should be excluded from Bali
Concord II so as not to imperil both its import and impact.
Yours truly,
Lim Kit Siang
National Chairman,
Democratic Action Party,
Malaysia
http://dapmalaysia.org