“Is Burma a problem in ASEAN or is it the problem with ASEAN?” Ms. Debbie Stothard of Altsean Burma

asks at the opening program of the Third ASEAN Civil Society Conference in Singapore. 2 November 2007

SINGAPORE.  Prominent human rights activists noted that there are many disturbing parallels between the crises in Burma and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

“ASEAN’s inaction on Burma reflects ASEAN’s institutional weaknesses”, said Debbie Stothard of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma.

It can be recalled that ASEAN came out with a statement expressing ‘revolt at the violent crackdown’, after the violent dispersals of protest actions in Burma.  Stothard said this statement is not enough and ASEAN can do more actions considering the influence that ASEAN countries can exert on Burma.

She noted that “Burma, whose military is the largest consumer of fuel in the country, relies on petrol and diesel from Malaysia and Singapore. Thailand and Singapore are the biggest sources of Burma’s foreign direct investments.  Burma’s military junta also relies on Singapore’s financial services to store and move the wealth that they drain away from the country.  Indonesia currently chairs the United Nations Security Council, the body most feared and respected by Burma’s military junta. Why can’t ASEAN take decisive action to pressure Burma move towards freedom and democracy”? 

Stothard also said that ASEAN has failed to act on other burning issues such as the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines and the increasing violence in southern Thailand.

“If ASEAN cannot deal with problems in our own backyard, how can we hope ASEAN to be truly responsive to the dynamics in the region?”, Stothard declared.

Rafendi Djamin, meanwhile of the Solidarity for Asian Peoples’Advocacy Working Groups on ASEAN and Human Rights, said that there is a gap between ASEAN policymakers and citizens. 

“The ASEAN policymakers fail to respond to the people’s issues that is why people are indifferent to the ASEAN”, Djamin said.  

Djamin challenged  civil society groups to push ASEAN to transform from a highly elitist to a more people-oriented institution.

Stothard and Djamin made their remarks before the Third ASEAN Civil Society Conference in Singapore where over a hundred civil society representatives are gathered to forge a people’s agenda as basis for engaging ASEAN.  The conference is on going until Sunday.