Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Indonesia and three countries ASEAN reportedly prompted the Southeast Asian nation’s association to step up pressure on military junta Myanmar.
According to four diplomatic sources, at a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers earlier this week Indonesia Malaysia, Singapore, and Filipina compactly demanded that the association put more pressure on the Myanmar military junta.
The four countries assessed that Myanmar’s military junta had shown no progress in complying with the Five Consensus Points to deal with the post-coup crisis agreed at the April summit in Jakarta.
One of the sources said the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting was going ‘tensely’ because not all countries agreed to increase pressure on the Myanmar junta.
The ASEAN foreign ministers are reportedly torn between adhering to the principle of non-intervention and maintaining the credibility of the association, which is often considered unable to resolve the crisis among its member countries.
“The atmosphere of the meeting has never been this tense,” said one of the sources who attended the meeting, “said one of the diplomats from the ASEAN countries who attended the meeting to Reuters.
“If you ask me if ASEAN did something like this a year ago, I would say it never happened. ASEAN is changing,” he added.
During the meeting, this year’s ASEAN chairman, Brunei Darussalam, finally decided not to invite the leader of the Myanmar junta, General Min Aung Hlaing, to the virtual ASEAN Summit which will take place October 26-28.
ASEAN actually plans to invite ‘non-political representatives’ from Myanmar.
The decision was considered to deviate from ASEAN’s policies related to nurturing and non-intervention which had been firmly held by member countries for decades.
Through a tweet on Twitter, Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said the outcome of the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting was “difficult but necessary decisions to uphold ASEAN’s credibility.“
Meanwhile, Philippine Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin said the Southeast Asian bloc could no longer take a neutral stance towards Myanmar.
“If we give in, our credibility as a real regional organization disappears. We are a group of people who always agree with each other on pointless things”.
In line with Balakrishnan and Locsin, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi also said that Indonesia proposed that Myanmar not be represented by political representatives at the ASEAN Summit later.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said the military junta barred ASEAN’s special envoy to Myanmar from meeting Aung San Suu Kyi, meaning they did not honor its commitment to the association.
“How do you fulfill the consensus in such a way? What ASEAN wants is to solve the problem,” Jokowi told reporters Reuters.
Jokowi reiterated his support for ASEAN’s decision not to invite the military junta to the summit.
“Strongly (support it), we are suggesting it,” he explained.
(rds/kid)
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