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View all search resultsASEAN needs to look beyond Myanmar’s Five-Point Consensus
ASEAN should be prepared to suspend Myanmar’s membership if the mechanism for expelling members is not provided for in the association’s bylaws.
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P
atience has its limits, even for ASEAN, famous or notorious, some argue, for its tardiness in taking action. The regional group must do something drastic soon in its dealing with Myanmar, the belligerent member which has defied its promise to end violence in the country. Failing that, the Myanmar issue is dragging the entire group down.
As this year’s ASEAN rotating chair, Indonesia says it will press the Myanmar junta to abide by the Five-Point Consensus (5PC) that it signed in an emergency meeting held in Jakarta in April 2021, two months after the military grabbed power from the democratically elected civilian government.
More than 20 months later, the military government has not abided by any of the five points that should be obvious to everyone that, by now, the generals in charge in Naypyidaw have no intention of implementing the agreement. They probably never have in the first place and they fooled all the other ASEAN leaders present at that crucial meeting.
No one ever doubted that the 5PC was a good document, a hard-won diplomacy by host President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. The five points are an immediate end to violence, holding dialogue among all parties, the appointment of a special envoy, allowing humanitarian assistance by ASEAN and allowing an ASEAN special envoy visit Myanmar to meet with all parties.
It was the best agreement that both sides could have gotten and it momentarily gave hope to the people in Myanmar and to the world that the situation would soon improve. It would have given a respectable exit for the junta and some credibility to ASEAN for its ability to sort out its own problems.
This however turned out to be an illusion. Today, the consensus looks like a dead document. ASEAN or rather Indonesia as chair should come up with an alternative plan in its place.
Realistically, there is not much more that ASEAN can do with Myanmar, not only because it is being held back by the “non-interference” principle, but more because the military junta has refused intervention from anyone, even from its well-meaning neighbors in Southeast Asia as it continues to kill and persecute its own people that oppose its rule.
