The past year has also exposed the limits of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) ability to protect its own people. Riven by internal divisions, the bloc has failed to take coherent and decisive action in response to Min Aung Hlaing’s atrocities. And now ASEAN faces a seemingly “perfect storm” of challenges to navigate in its efforts to deal with the murderous miliary junta.

The current ASEAN chair, Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen, has made a series of blunders since assuming the role in January. His ill-advised visit to Naypyitaw – made without consulting other member states – was predictably exploited by Min Aung Hlaing and resulted in nothing more than a reality-bending joint statement that was simply a PR exercise for the junta.

He was burned a second time when he was forced to apologize for wrongly announcing that Australian economic advisor Sean Turnell had been released. Turnell remains, after a year, unjustly detained by the junta.

Meanwhile, the United Nations secretary general’s recently appointed special envoy to Myanmar, Noeleen Heyzer, a critical partner for ASEAN, has been massively set back in her initial efforts after making an ill-judged proposal for a power sharing with the military as a way forward.

As for Min Aung Hlaing himself, he is deluded. He has no authority over the country. Significant territory is under the control of the allied democratic forces – the National Unity Government (NUG), ethnic administrations and protest groups. Yet, he is digging in his heels, intransigent to this reality, and intensifying his violence.

But there is still hope. As ASEAN foreign ministers meet in Phnom Penh in a hybrid format this week, they must seize the moment and return ASEAN to the more principled course it had begun to take before the New Year.

Popular

Analysis: Prabowo’s approval rating 51 percent and falling

Inequality worsens as wealth gap widens

A healthy economy must be felt