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Back-door diplomacy 'underway' as ASEAN seeks inroads into post-coup Myanmar
ASEAN member states are scrambling behind the scenes to find ways to prevent the post-coup situation in Myanmar from further unraveling.
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Protesters march on a road during a demonstration against the military coup in Shwebo, in Myanmar's Sagaing region, on Feb. 13. (Agence France Presse/STR)
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SEAN members like Indonesia have been working the diplomatic channels to set up a special ASEAN ministerial meeting to avert one of the biggest political crises in the region, as civil disobedience continues in Myanmar two weeks after its government was ousted by a military coup.
“Diplomatic efforts are still underway” at various levels, said Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah in cautious discussions with The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Faizasyah’s statement follows up on suggestions from President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, made during their first official bilateral meeting in Jakarta earlier this month.
The two leaders represent some of Southeast Asia’s biggest democracies, on whom the international community has pinned its hopes to respond to political repercussions from the coup.
Myanmar’s military junta, the Tatmadaw, overthrew the government of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi based on unfounded allegations of election fraud in November.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the country were reported to have spilled onto the streets to denounce the military’s derailment of a tentative transition to democracy, but as of Monday, Reuters reported that the crowds had been getting smaller following the junta’s deployment of armored vehicles and more soldiers to guard the streets.
ASEAN member states have come up with a variety of individual responses reflective of their respective political systems, whether authoritarian or democratic, making collective regional action an increasingly delicate matter.
