Last week’s ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) meeting in Singapore produced some very muted criticism of the military junta in Myanmar:
ASEAN foreign ministers, frustrated after years of fruitless overtures to Myanmar to reform, expressed “deep disappointment” in a statement on Sunday that the ruling generals had extended Suu Kyi’s house arrest.
That’s nearly as softly worded a criticism as you could get, but just as it is extremely unusual for African leaders to criticise each other over their internal affairs, so is also the case in South East Asian. These words are therefore potentially a significant departure from the past. Another missed opportunity for international pressure or a hopeful sign of things to come? Time will tell.
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As Malcolm Bruce pointed out recently, the main problem in getting change in Burma is the attitude of the neighbours. He was particularly disappointed with India, which after all is a democracy.
So this declaration is progress of a kind. It may be that it is a worthless declaration to placate western governments, or it may signal a new direction.
What I find interesting, and disturbing, is that the cause of human rights is one that is mainly supported by western governments alone. An often we are the hypocrits over this as well, extrordinary rendition shows.
Glass totally empty. Evil has been going on there for decades and no one does anything. No nation in the world can claim to have anything like an ethical foreign policy. Sudan, Zimbabwe, and many more the media don’t even bother to tell us about.