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Let’s talk tough about human rights and freedom
While you can only count six references to human rights in the entire document, it is clear that at least on paper, the EU is serious about them.
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People wearing facemasks amid concerns about the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus walk in the Yangon international airport in Yangon, Myanmar, on March 18. (AFP/STR)
It is not that difficult to guess the real reasons why the scheduled United States-ASEAN summit was suddenly canceled.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the struggles of Beijing to accommodate its “unlimited” friendship with Moscow and the clear positions of some members of ASEAN certainly not supportive of the aspirations of the free people of Ukraine are, undoubtedly, part of the explanation.
But let’s pretend that these considerations do not matter and let’s rest the issue with the veiled criticism of Indonesia by the Cambodian prime minister and current chair of ASEAN, Hun Sen.
Now, what’s wrong with Indonesia?
Well, it is apparently the coordinating country for the US-ASEAN summit and trying to understand the logic behind having Indonesia responsible for such a summit remains one of the most fascinating intricacies of the ASEAN governance. Yet it was intriguing how daring Prime Minister Hun Sen was in showing his eagerness to talk about human rights with US President Joe Biden.
As far as I dislike the brutal effectiveness of Hun Sen and his regime at stifling the political opposition in Cambodia while bulldozing human rights there, I think it is fair to create a level playing field in such sensitive discussions.
If the US, the European Union, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Australia (New Zeeland is a bit missing in action but slowly it is stepping up) wants to talk tough on human rights, then they should also come to the table with an admission of culpability on many of their internal fronts.
