But Timor-Leste could undermine the process after its leader appeared to issue a vote of no-confidence in the increasingly powerful bloc.

Indonesia and ASEAN do not need to persuade Timor-Leste Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao to retract his threat to stop his government’s steps toward joining ASEAN if the regional grouping cannot immediately end the state-sponsored atrocities in Myanmar. Xanana effectively demanded a quick solution to the Myanmar cause as an absolute precondition for his country's admission to ASEAN.

"If ASEAN is not able to convince the military junta in Myanmar, I can say Timor-Leste cannot yet trust the association; this the position of the government," news-viptv.com quoted Xanana as telling journalists after meeting with President Jose Ramos Horta at the Presidential Palace in Dili on Aug. 3.

Xanana even reported his decision to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to amplify his statement.

The prime minister said that as a country that had adopted democracy, Timor-Leste could not accept military junta regimes anywhere and could not ignore human rights violations in Myanmar. "Timor-Leste will not be joining the ASEAN if ASEAN cannot convince the military junta in Myanmar [to end the conflict]," The Jakarta Post quoted Xanana as saying.

Xanana’s remarks are a slap in the face for President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo because the Timor-Leste independence hero knows that ASEAN under Indonesia’s chairmanship this year will not be able to do much to ease the plight of the Myanmar people.

Xanana has the right to express his frustration with the snail-paced progress ASEAN has achieved in dealing with the Myanmar junta, but there should be diplomatic channels to convey this rather than venting his anger in public. 

President Jokowi is the leading promoter of Timor-Leste's inclusion in ASEAN and has worked very hard to convince his skeptical colleagues, such as Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, to accept Timor-Leste as part of ASEAN. Lee had initially insisted that the new nation's entry to ASEAN would only burden the trade bloc.

President Ramos-Horta visited Jakarta to address the Democracy Dialogue event hosted by this newspaper on Monday and suggested that Xanana’s statement could have been misquoted. But I do not believe Xanana’s remarks were just a slip of the tongue or came out because of pressure from journalists.

Ramos-Horta insisted Timor-Leste remained on course to becoming the 11th member state of ASEAN, regardless of the Myanmar issue, saying that expecting ASEAN to have fully resolved the complicated Myanmar crisis was “unfair”.

But no matter how skillfully Ramos-Horta tried to tone down Xanana's remarks, the damage has been done and will take some time to heal, especially among ASEAN leaders skeptical of Timor-Leste.

PM Lee could be one of them. He has promised to help accelerate Timor-Leste's path to full membership status of ASEAN but warned that Asia’s youngest country might take a while to accede to agreements signed by ASEAN. 

"There are something like 66 ASEAN agreements, and it will take a while for Timor-Leste to accede to all of them. And I think it's important that Timor-Leste completes all this process so that by the time it joins ASEAN, it's really truly an ASEAN member and not just a half-member or member-in-waiting," Lee was quoted as saying by The Straits Times after the ASEAN summit in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara in May. 

As it is impossible for ASEAN to accommodate such a nonsensical demand, just let Xanana keep his nation out of ASEAN. He should withdraw his country's application for full membership of ASEAN before becoming a "thorn in the flesh" of the grouping.

Xanana was the prime minister when Timor-Leste officially applied for ASEAN membership in 2011. After realizing the reluctance of other members to accept the former colony of Indonesia, President Jokowi took the initiative to speed up its integration with ASEAN. 

There was no explanation for why Xanana was so upset with ASEAN. But he should know his condition for Timor-Leste’s entry to ASEAN is unreasonable, due to the complexity of the Myanmar problem. Suppose he thinks he could oust Myanmar's military regime as soon as he wants. In that case, he could volunteer a movement to liberate the Myanmar people from military rule, as he did when fighting the Indonesian Army for then-East Timor’s independence.

During the ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh last year, the ASEAN leaders agreed unanimously to accept Timor-Leste as an observer. Jokowi wanted faster process, but as many procedures needed to be readjusted, including the 2007 ASEAN Charter, it was almost impossible to upgrade Timor-Leste’s status to full membership that year.

Timor-Leste's tiny economy, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of about US$2.45 billion in 2022, has been seen as one of the stumbling blocks in its bid to join ASEAN. The country has an undeveloped economy with an unbalanced structure lopsidedly dependent on gas and oil revenues and foreign aid.

Its per capita GDP in 2021 stood at US$1,457, only higher than Myanmar's $1,187 among ASEAN members. Timor-Leste is predicted to gain from full membership of ASEAN, which is among the fastest-growing regions in the world at 5.5 percent last year according to the Asian Development Bank. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which comprises ASEAN and some of its key trading partners, entered into force in January last year and is expected to further accelerate growth.

As prime minister, Xanana has the right to direct his country's foreign policy. ASEAN should just let him walk the talk regarding his government’s intentions to reconsider Timor-Leste's membership of ASEAN. Hopefully, Xanana will lead Timor-Leste to a chief role in bringing peace and democracy back to Myanmar without becoming an ASEAN member.

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The writer is senior editor at The Jakarta Post.