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fter days at sea on a small, rickety and overcrowded boat, you finally reach land. Your welcoming party is a group of soldiers and, needless to say, they are not happy to see you arrive. After detaining and beating you, they force you back onto the same boat that you were so thankful to have just escaped from. The soldiers destroy the boat's motor, tow it, full of its human cargo, far out to sea and leave you, with little food and water and no way to save yourself.

By some miracle, after countless more days at sea, you again find land. Again you are detained. You are given food, water, and shelter, but your life remains in limbo. This country doesn't want you; nor does the one you left. Though safe on land, you are still adrift. For most people this sounds like a nightmare from which one would awake, sobbing and afraid, but thankful that it was only a dream.

The Rohingya people hail from northern Arakan state in western Myanmar, near the border with Bangladesh. They have long suffered abuse and persecution at the hands of the military juntas that have ruled Myanmar since 1962. The life of the estimated 800,000 Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar is one of complete insecurity. Stripped of their Burmese citizenship in 1982, when the junta passed a new Citizenship Law which based citizenship eligibility on a list of 135 indigenous peoples, the Rohingya daily face arbitrary arrest, torture, rape, forced relocation, forced labor, confiscation of land and property and religious persecution.

The plight of the Rohingya people has been brought to the attention of the international community, not long ago, as scores of them washed up on the shores of neighboring countries and reports of severe abuse surfaced. Since December 2008 the Indonesian Navy has rescued nearly 400 Rohingya adrift off the coast of Aceh, North Sumatra. It is estimated that nearly one million Rohingya live as refugees in countries from Malaysia to Saudi Arabia. The fate of these refugees remains unsettled, as attempts to address the problem through the recent Bali Process meetings and by ASEAN leaders have thus far yielded no concrete results.

The Bali Process, a forum conceived to devise solutions to human trafficking, transnational crime and smuggling in the Asia-Pacific region, discussed the issue of the Rohingya at its recent meeting in Bali. Calls from Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Dipu Moni for Myanmar to accept the repatriation of the Rohingya were met with the same old line from Myanmar's representative.

Myanmar's Deputy Minister for Home Affairs and Chief of Police Brigadier-General Khin Yi asserted that the Rohingya were not citizens of Myanmar but foreign Bengalis and therefore not eligible to return to Myanmar. The junta, like a child wishing on a star, believes that closing its eyes tight and repeating its wish over and over will somehow make it come true.

Some advocate the position that the Rohingya, and as well other Myanmarese nationals fleeing persecution in Myanmar, should not be repatriated, as they would face the same, if not worse cases of abuse and mistreatment.

The failure to reach any concrete decisions in Bali that would bring about a better life for the Rohingya is troubling, but not surprising. In dealing with the Rohingya, the junta is resorting to its favorite tactics, denying, lying and hoping that no one calls its bluff. Sadly, this strategy has been quite successful for the junta in the past, as ASEAN stands weak and idle.

The problem of the Rohingya, after all, is not the only regional issue originating in Myanmar. The country is a leading producer of the opium, heroin and amphetamines, which flood neighboring countries. Along with drugs and refugees, Myanmar is also exporting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, drug-resistant malaria, filariasis and avian flu. The junta holds over 2,000 political prisoners in its jails and attacks on civilians and democracy and human rights activists continue unabated. Despite all of this, the junta insists that all is well and is anxiously preparing for an election scheduled for next year.

It is time that someone calls the junta's bluff and questions ASEAN's weakness in finding viable solutions to the Burma crisis. It is time for the region to stand up in support and defend the Rohingya and all the people of Myanmar. The member states of ASEAN must accept their role in relation to this human security crisis and act aggressively to rectify the problem. For too long ASEAN has hidden behind its unwritten policy of non-interference. It has allowed the junta to shirk its responsibilities to the Burmese people, including the Rohingya, and to ASEAN.

For decades ASEAN has stood by weakened while the military regime in Myanmar murders, rapes and pillages its citizens. The Rohingya crisis has made it clear that ASEAN must stand up and lead the push for true democratic reform in Myanmar, not at its next Ministerial Meeting, not at its next Summit, but now.