After all, there is nothing that precludes an ASEAN community at the vanguard of digital technologies from remaining anchored to common principles enshrined in its foundation charter.

Unfortunately by observing how the latest ASEAN summit ended, it seems really that the leaders of this community are embracing one idea of a common future while rejecting and disregarding another one.

This is shameful and must be condemned.

You know what I am talking about: the final declaration issued by Brunei that somehow still welcomes Myanmar back in the near future. Everyone wants Myanmar back but to which country is Sultan Bolkiah referring? Is he talking about the junta’s Myanmar or the country that recognizes and dies for the National Unity Government (NUG)?

All this vagueness when the junta is shelling entire communities and deploying thousands of soldiers throughout the country with only one mission: quash the ordinary people simply because they dare to reject the junta’s usurpation of power.

ASEAN is still, somehow, keeping open the doors for the junta in Myanmar to find itself a dignified way out of this mess.

It is not that negotiations are not needed but in these unique circumstances, when it is crystal clear that the generals are not genuinely interested in pursuing a political settlement, then negotiations must be pursued from a position of force, a position that only Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia right now can try to advance.

Let us put the junta into the corner and then force it, through sanctions and total political isolation, to bow out for good.

Am I thinking too radically? Perhaps you can accuse me of naiveté but not of radicalism because the generals had so much time to find a way out of the mess they have created.

Instead Aung San Suu Kyi is probably just a few days away from a long and harsh sentence. While we could discuss about her role and her positioning over the negotiations of last year’s elections, Suu Kyi should not be under house arrest and she should not be on trial but instead she should lead her country.

Cambodia, the ASEAN chair for 2022, has expressed its commitment to keep pushing the generals. We will see how internal dynamics within the bloc will play out but even if Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore continue to exert maximum pressure on their peers within ASEAN, such efforts will not yield results.

That is exactly what they have been doing so far and the most they could produce was an invitation to a nonpolitical figure to the summit to represent Myanmar. They could not even manage to convince their peers to invite the real representatives of the people, the NUG.

What else should we expect from the bloc in the months to come?

The message delivered by Sultan Bolkiah, as ambiguous as it was, seems perfectly designed to keep the generals in the equation. It is simple as it is: ASEAN alone will be unable to bring about change but now such realization should make the leaders of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore shift gear and change approach.

Therefore the progressive leaders of ASEAN must pursue double-track diplomacy, partnering with those members of the international community that are most serious about tackling the generals while reforming a values-based agenda inside the bloc.

The first dimension of this new strategy would not pit a western approach against an eastern but rather it would boil down to making choices: working to save life or lingering around in the ASEAN way and waiting for more people to be massacred in Myanmar.

Therefore those Southeast Asian leaders, who care about lives, really have to show to their peers in the region that enough is enough and they have the resolve and determination to bypass the bloc.

Another area where these countries can work with the international community is to enable and facilitate the Office of the High Representative for Human Rights to pursue war crimes charges against the generals while at the same time, putting vital, human-rights interests before economic ones.

Pursuing sanctions against the holdings that generate incomes for the generals is indispensable and it is a path that cannot be avoided.

It is not even worth waiting for Beijing to intervene. Sure, we are still hoping that President Xi Jinping will change his game and start working out some logistics to offer a dignified retirement in exile for the generals.

Yet what the generals deserve is serving time in a jail in The Hague and sooner or later war crimes charges will be laid by the prosecutors of the International Criminal Court against them.

At the same time, the second side of the strategy: there is a need to double down on the upholding of human right values within ASEAN. We must redouble the efforts to ensure that ASEAN embraces human rights as per its foundational charter.

Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia should not abdicate this responsibility while pursuing justice for the citizens of Myanmar through other avenues. In practice it means pushing ahead with a total reform of the human rights tools ASEAN has at its disposal and it also means pushing for a common parliament.

The existing regional institutions that are supposed to ensure the respect of human rights and bring together the people’s representatives are not even up to the standards of the Flintstones.

Therefore the region must move past the Stone Age era in matters of key values and think seriously about values-rich institutions fit for the 21st century.

The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly are almost a joke despite some valiant ongoing attempts to reform them from inside.

At the end of the day, the youth of the region have clear minds on what counts the most. They also have their hearts in the right place everywhere from Bangkok to Phnom Penh and Vientiane to Hanoi, and from Bandar Seri Begawan to Manila.

A connected ASEAN means, first and foremost, a region where the future generations share an understanding on what to value and prioritize. Only pursuing a connectivity of values will harness other dimensions of cooperation and progress the youth are desperate for.

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The writer comments on social inclusion, youth development, regional integration and Sustainable Development Goals in the context of Asia Pacific.