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Enforcing ASEAN’S consensus is suicidal for Myanmar’s junta
The junta leader has no intention of realizing a single point of the agreement from the very beginning, and even when he does, the people and the ousted civilian leaders will choose to fight the junta anyway.
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Emergency meeting: Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing (bottom right) attends a meeting of ASEAN leaders at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta on April 24, 2021, for talks on how to guide the country out of the crisis he created. (AFP/Indonesian Presidential Palace )
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ed by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, ASEAN set a historic precedent when he cohosted a leaders’ emergency summit with Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah to discuss the Myanmar crisis with junta leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing in Jakarta on April 24, 2021. The President succeeded in pushing Hlaing to agree to a five-point consensus proposed by the leaders.
President Jokowi received full backing from then-Malaysian prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte were absent because of their belief ASEAN should not interfere with Myanmar’s internal affairs.
Although some may say the five-point consensus is far from ideal, the agreement has, unintentionally, ended a long-held taboo that had prevented the 10 members of ASEAN from meddling with the domestic affairs of one another. Furthermore, the “non-interference” principle will continue to be ignored, without revising the 2007 ASEAN Charter.
Gen. Hlaing, who was invited to Jakarta in his capacity as Myanmar’s Army chief, accepted the five-point consensus — perhaps just to appease ASEAN leaders in public. He might have calculated that President Jokowi could not do more than speak loudly to the international community. Hlaing was partly right.
Upon arriving home, Hlaing quickly denied approving the consensus and set up his own conditions for solving the conundrum. Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, the rotary chairman of ASEAN in 2021, was evidently reluctant to force the Myanmar military junta to implement the five-point consensus. The junta, for one, opted for a “time-buying” tactic.
The consensus is as follows: First, there shall be an immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar and all parties shall exercise utmost restraint. Second, constructive dialogue among all parties concerned shall commence seeking a peaceful solution in the interests of the people.
Third, a special envoy of the ASEAN chair shall facilitate mediation of the dialogue process, with the assistance of the secretary-general of ASEAN. Fourth, ASEAN shall provide humanitarian assistance through the AHA Center. Fifth, the special envoy and delegation shall visit Myanmar to meet with all parties concerned.
