Asean upbeat about Myanmar

Grouping happy it is making progress in its democratisation process

PHNOM PENH: It has been quite some time – a rather long time, in fact – since Asean discussed its member state Myanmar in a positive light.

Usually, when the leaders are “forced” to talk about the juntaruled country, it is because the global community has criticised and condemned Myanmar over one issue or another.

Such a situation has put the leaders in a spot because Asean practises a non-inteference policy among members.

This time, however, leaders who met for the 20th Asean Summit were more than happy to talk about Myanmar.

Just three days before regional grouping leaders converged in this city for their annual meet, Myanmar held by-elections for 45 seats, 43 of which were won by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).

During the discussions, leaders were upbeat about Myanmar.

After all, their years of efforts to “deal with Myanmar” through constructive engagement and moral suasion despite international pressure for Asean to act against its member have finally borne fruit.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said everyone was upbeat and felt that they were justified because it was proven that the Asean way of doing things – via engagement, rather than confrontation – had been successful in persuading Myanmar to undertake changes.

“We also should accept the fact that the Asean way of doing things is successful. The time is right for them (Myanmar) to join the ranks of the nations of the world,” he said.

The grouping’s support for Myanmar today could not be more evident with leaders unanimously calling on the international community to lift economic sanctions against the country and for this call to be included in the communique.

Malaysia will certainly be pushing for this and the Prime Minister had

We also should accept the fact that the Asean way of doing things is successful. The time is right for them (Myanmar) to join the ranks of the nations of the world. — DATUK SERI NAJIB TUN RAZAK

said that the matter would be raised when his counterpart from Britain, David Cameron, visits the country on April 12.

Asean had also made a significant decision at this meeting – that it would draw up a Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea among member countries without getting China involved.

While leaders felt discussion on the South China Sea should be conducted within the Asean-china framework, the COC is to be “an Asean thing” and should be drawn up before any engagement with China is made.

It was earlier reported that Cambodia had tried to get China involved in formulating the code, which had since been denied by Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman.

“There was no such attempt. Asean will sit down among ourselves and come up with possible elements of the COC,” he said.

However, Cambodia did inform leaders of China’s view that discussions on the code should be between Asean and China and that there ought to be no outside interference.

Malaysia saw a push in the promotion of the Global Movement of Moderates when the Asean concept paper on the topic was adopted.

Najib was pleased that the idea which Malaysia had mooted was being supported by Asean countries, which value mutual respect and reject extremism and violence.

On the economic front, Asean can anticipate to be the focus of the world’s attention with the region expecting to register a handsome growth this year of between 5.6% and 6.3% at a time when global economic giants are slowing down.

The region’s 600 million population, growing middle-class and large pool of young people make Asean a very attractive place in the eyes of the foreign investors; hence, it is critical that measures outlined in the Asean Economic Community blueprint are taken so that the region will remain alluring.

Malaysia has asked other members to ensure that the blueprint’s implementation, which is currently at 70%, be stepped up, pointing out the need to intensify efforts to address implementation gaps, provide greater support for small-medium-sized enterprise development and refrain from taking new nontariff measures that can impede greater regional integration.

It looks like years of hard work to ensure that the region is politically and economically stable is starting to pay off.

Myanmar is finally making progress in its democratisation process and the world is now looking at the region differently.

While Asean deserves to enjoy the good attention, its members need to continue to work hard and work together to ensure that this remains focused on the region.