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Normalizing Myanmar junta: Has ASEAN self-destructed?
As next year's chair, Indonesia should start preparing now on how it can extricate ASEAN from a trap of its own making regarding the Myanmar crisis.
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Myanmar junta military soldiers parade during a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the country's Union Day in Naypyidaw on Feb. 12, 2022. (AFP/AFP)
I
n the recent ASEAN Defense Senior Officials’ Meeting on May 17, Cambodia announced its plan to invite the defense minister of the Myanmar junta’s State Administration Council (SAC) to the 16th ASEAN Defense Ministerial Meeting (ADMM) scheduled for June 21-22 in Phnom Penh.
The announcement came after the Consultative Meeting on ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance (AHA) to Myanmar held on May 6. The outcome of that meeting mandated the AHA Centre, in consultation with the Myanmar Task Force, to start preparing for the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Delivery Arrangement Framework, address the operational challenges of the delivery process, and create the framework for COVID-19 vaccine administration in Myanmar.
While the delivery of humanitarian assistance is one of the points in the Five-Point Consensus (FPC) tasked to the AHA Centre, the way it is now being constructed is not in line with the original spirit underpinning the FPC.
Instead of tasking the special envoy on Myanmar to meet with all stakeholders and then create an impartial body to monitor and deliver assistance so it reaches all Myanmar people in need, ASEAN chair Cambodia has made the bloc partial and, even worse, take the side of the junta-founded Myanmar Task Force, which is headed by the SAC’s minister for international cooperation.
While the meeting’s outcome mentions that humanitarian assistance will be delivered to communities in Myanmar, including areas with Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs), it also states that the Myanmar Task Force will work with the National Solidarity and Peacemaking Negotiations Committee chaired by an SAC general. Under such an arrangement, it is very hard, if not impossible, to see how this effort could be impartial, despite the junta’s slogan of “Leaving No One Behind”.
What is even more despairing is the fact that Cambodia has unilaterally declared this to be an “achievement”, that the Consultative Meeting was part of the effort to implement the FPC, whereas it is a major setback for ASEAN.
The fact that ASEAN cannot come up with any other strategic, coherent plan to move beyond simply offering a nonpolitical representative to pressure Myanmar’s junta makes this downward trajectory predictable. In fact, there has been lack of clarity on what it means by refusing the attendance of any political representative from that country.
