Sovereignty does not come from some thugs with guns storming the president’s office. Sovereignty ultimately stems from the mandate of the people.

On Nov. 8, 2020, the people of Myanmar clearly expressed their will by overwhelmingly voting for the National League for Democracy (NLD), which won 83 percent of available seats. This is where our sovereignty lays, on the principle of parliamentary sovereignty.

Unlike pre-2015 situations, we now have an elected government and an elected parliament. While our president and Cabinet are illegally imprisoned, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, our democratically elected parliamentarians are still at large. They are now represented by the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH).

Pyidaungsu Hluttaw is the Myanmar name for the Union Parliament. The CRPH has appointed Dr. Sa Sa as its UN representative and Htin Lin Aung as its international relations representative.

If ASEAN nations respect Myanmar’s sovereignty as they claim, we request that you deal only with the CRPH and its representatives on any matters that relate to Myanmar,  not with the military regime. If ASEAN nations persist in their claim that they respect Myanmar’s sovereignty while ignoring the pleas of her people and her sovereign parliament, this organization will become a laughing stock in the history books.

We urge ASEAN leaders to listen to the cries of the millions of people marching on the streets everyday: the cries of mothers who have lost their children to the military’s guns and the cries of toddlers whose parents were illegally arrested at gunpoint in front of them, just because their existence threatened the regime.

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This weekend, the world saw the junta’s most brutal crackdown on peaceful protests since its Feb. 1 coup. At least 23 people are confirmed dead and hundreds have been arrested. No one can, in good conscience, entertain the claim to authority by a murderous regime that has killed its own unarmed citizens in broad daylight.

For many decades, ASEAN nations, especially Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, have borne the burden of the Myanmar military’s repressive policies against its minorities. The army’s atrocities and genocide of the Rohingya people is well known; however, the army has been in conflict with many more ethnic groups. We have some of the longest civil wars in the world, since independence in 1948. The military’s atrocities have forced many people to fl ee on fi shing boats across the oceans to the shores of neighboring countries.

If ASEAN countries want to address the refugee crisis on their lands,  please help us restore democracy in Myanmar and end the military junta that is responsible for all of this.

Of course, we recognize that the atrocities happened under the NLD-led government. As a member of Muslim minority, my community has also felt betrayed by the events. However, please remember that even though the NLD government has given cover to the atrocities, the real perpetrator of these horrendous crimes is the Army, led by the person who has now grabbed power illegally.

Rohingyas in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar and Kachin refugees living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps are vocally protesting against the military coup and are openly supporting the national uprising. This is little wonder, as they are the most knowledgeable about the army’s brutal treatment. In turn, many of the country’s youths have expressed regret and openly apologized for maintaining their silence in the past. In a way, these protests have opened the eyes of the blind and allowed the silent majority to find their voice.

This uprising is more than just restoring Suu Kyi and the NLD to power. Our aim is to stop repression in any and all forms, including stopping the wars targeting the people of the Rakhine, Rohingya and Kachin ethnic minorities. We yearn for a Democratic Federal Union where minorities have a greater voice. We want to abolish military involvement in politics, and we crave to hold to account the leaders of the military coup and perpetrators of genocide.

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This Myanmar Spring uprising truly involves a multiethnic, multireligious, multiclass and multigenerational coalition. To enable it to succeed, we have a simple request for the international community, including ASEAN: Please do not recognize the military regime in any form, under any circumstance.

Nonrecognition of the military junta comprises: 1) not inviting the junta-picked foreign minister in upcoming ASEAN meetings; 2) freezing all assets belonging to the army and its cronies that are located in ASEAN countries; 3) recognizing the CRPH as the sole representative of the legal government of Myanmar; and 4) channeling Myanmar’s state funds held in regional banks to democratically elected parliamentarians.

A democratic and prosperous Myanmar will not only be beneficial to the region and her neighbors, but is also essential for the prosperity, safety and unity of ASEAN. Stopping the genocidal regime in its infancy is the only way to achieve this and to prevent the future waves of refugees that will arrive in five to 10 years.

We therefore urge the leaders and foreign ministers of ASEAN to support the Myanmar people, to recognize the 2020 election results and to recognize our sovereign parliament when they meet today, March 2.

***

Academic and postdoctoral research fellow at University of Malaya

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