Letter: Malaysia, ASEAN, Myanmar

ADPARA>This letter refers to the Malaysian deputy foreign minister's remarks in Parliament on May 22, on Malaysia having no regrets supporting Myanmar's recruitment into ASEAN in 1997. I cannot help but be appalled at the ignorance and insensitivity of the Malaysian government when it comes to the humanitarian and political crisis surrounding Myanmar.

Malaysia has displayed an extreme lack of awareness about the reality of the situation of a country which has been ruled under various brutal military dictators over the past 46 years.

In displaying no regrets when supporting a military regime that has no qualms about allowing its citizens to needlessly suffer from the after-effects of a natural disaster, Malaysia has proven that it does not care about the welfare of the people there.

Myanmar is what it is today - no different, if not worse than 10 years ago when it joined ASEAN - because of government representatives like Deputy Foreign Minister Abdul Rahim Bakri.

I challenge him to take his words to the families of the thousands of dead Myanmarese in Yangon and other cyclone devastated parts of the country. I challenge him to go to each of the 2.5 million survivors of the storm - who are, with every passing minute, at risk of death from disease and starvation - and relate his ignorant statement that Myanmar has 'developed little by little after it joined ASEAN'.

What development is he talking about? Millions of internally displaced people? The lack of infrastructure and will of the Myanmar Junta to adequately warn its people of an impending deadly cyclone or the lack of capacity and will to administer aid and relief efforts to save the victims of the disaster?

Is he referring to a Myanmar constitution that mocks the ASEAN Charter - in terms of deliberately entrenching the power of authoritarian military generals?

Every minute that passes as the Malaysian government - and ASEAN member states - protect the junta, a child dies of malnutrition, hunger and disease. This is not only as a result of the cyclone -- prior to the natural disaster, this situation was caused by the incompetence and sheer inhumanity of the Myanmar military.

Perhaps the only real 'development' that Myanmar and Malaysia have seen over the past 10 years is from the petrol and natural gas industry in Myanmar - which Malaysia's Petronas is a key part of. Certainly the deputy minister cannot be referring to the increase in direct personal revenue of the military regime -- and Malaysia's investors -- when he talks about development in Myanmar. Or is he?

Enough is enough, Malaysia. Enough is enough, ASEAN.
ROSHAN JASON
Kuala Lumpur