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New ASEAN chair Indonesia can change the game in Myanmar
Indonesia is the third largest democracy in the world and the leadership and people of Indonesia will understand well the suffering of the people of Myanmar under a decades-long military dictatorship.
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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (right) receives the symbolic gavel from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, marking the handover of the ASEAN chairmanship from Cambodia to Indonesia, during the closing ceremony of the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and Related Summits on Nov. 13, 2022 at the Sokha Hotel in Phnom Penh. (Antara/Hafidz Mubarak A.)
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ambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen symbolically handed over the gavel of the ASEAN chairmanship to Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in Phnom Penh on Nov. 13, the last day of the ASEAN Summit. Jokowi’s term for the ASEAN chairmanship will be effective on Jan. 1, 2023.
All eyes are now on Indonesia with the high expectation that it could help resolve the protracted Myanmar conflict. Why is it so? Let me start with a brief background of the Myanmar conflict.
On the morning of Feb. 1, 2021, the Myanmar military, for the third time since Myanmar gained independence on Jan. 4, 1948, launched a coup d’etat and deposed the democratically elected government of Myanmar. It was on the day the newly elected members of parliament were going to convene the first session of parliament after an overwhelming landslide victory of Aung San Su Kyi’s NLD Party in the November 2020 national elections.
The people of Myanmar had deeply suffered for about five decades of military dictatorship from the previous two military coups. They could not tolerate such a mishap for the third time. They felt insulted that the military entirely neglected their votes and their right to self-determination in choosing their own government.
Thousands of people from all walks of life orchestrated anti-military dictatorship demonstrations throughout the country. They were primarily spearheaded by the youth, affectionately known as Generation Z, consisting of about 5 million first-time voters. The demonstrations were brutally cracked down by the military, which culminated with the bloodshed of hundreds of demonstrators.
The people of Myanmar wanted to seek help from the United Nations to intervene under the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P). However, many attempts to propose R2P in the UN Security Council failed due to the threatened vetoes of China and Russia. Due to a stalemate in the Council, the UN tactfully handed over the Myanmar conflict to ASEAN, the regional organization in which Myanmar is a member.
After the coup, the chair of ASEAN, Brunei Darussalam and its special envoy, Erywon Yusof, pursued a five-point consensus adopted by the ASEAN Meeting of Leaders (AML) without any success. When the next chair, Cambodia, took over in January 2022, Prime Minister Hun Sen personally spearheaded the overtures to the Myanmar military and again failed to achieve anything. Even today, the Myanmar military chief did not implement any of the five-point consensus that he himself had agreed.
