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Call on parliamentarians, NGOs, civil society activists and opinion leaders in Malaysia and all other ASEAN countries to come forward and support the campaign to deny the 2006 ASEAN Chair to the Myanmar military junta unless there are meaningful and tangible political reforms on democratization and national reconciliation in Myanmar
Media Conference statement (2) by Lim Kit Siang (Parliament House, Tuesday): The year-long extension of the house arrest of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Burmese Opposition Leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the time of the Vientiane ASEAN Summit is an open slap in the face of ASEAN leaders and governments which had been urging on the Myanmar military junta to respect regional and international opinion for a meaningful political dialogue, democratization and national reconciliation in Burma, including the immediate and unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi and the over 1,300 political prisoners in the country. It has brought to the very forefront the issue whether it is in the interests of the people and nations of ASEAN for Myanmar to take over the rotation chair of ASEAN for 2006, precipitating ASEAN on a path of confrontation with the European Union, the United States and international opinion. An important meeting was held in Kuala Lumpur in the past weekend – the Workshop of ASEAN Parliamentarians on the Myanmar Issue, organized by the Pro-Democracy Myanmar Caucus of the Malaysian Parliament and attended by parliamentarians from seven ASEAN countries, namely Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia as well as Burmese Parliamentarians-in-exile who were elected in the 1990 general election in Burma. The three-day meeting of ASEAN Parliamentarians took two important decisions:
It can be said that the ASEAN Parliamentarians from six ASEAN countries at the Kuala Lumpur Workshop today had fired the first shot for a regional campaign that in view of the failure of the ASEAN “constructive engagement policy” vis-à-vis Myanmar in the past decade as witnessed by the host of broken promises by the Myanmese military junta on meaningful political reforms on democratization and national reconciliation, Myanmar should not be allowed to take the ASEAN Chair for 2006 unless the ruling Myanmese State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) can show concrete results, such as:
If the Myanmese military junta is allowed to take the ASEAN Chair for 2006 despite its dismal record and the failure of the ASEAN “constructive engagement” policy with Myanmar, it will be a great blow to ASEAN with its adverse impact on its international image and standing and undesirable economic consequences for the other ASEAN member nations in the era of globalization. The responsibility to bring Myanmar from the darkness of unredeemed repression and to ensure that the Myanmese military junta live up to its minimal responsibilities as a member of ASEAN as well as the international comity of nations should not be left only to conscientious ASEAN Parliamentarians but must be shared by all other sectors of society in ASEAN countries. Parliamentarians, NGOs, civil society activists and opinion leaders in Malaysia and in all other ASEAN countries should support the campaign to deny the 2006 ASEAN Chair to the Myanmar military junta unless there are meaningful and tangible political reforms on democratization and national reconciliation in Myanmar. It is not only to the interests of the people of Myanmar but also in the enlightened self-interests of all other ASEAN nations that Burma should end its long night of self-isolation and return to the mainstream of international relations by conducting itself as a responsible member of the international society, by first meeting its ASEAN commitments with a meaningful process of political dialogue, democratization and national reconciliation in Burma. |