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One year on, Myanmar shadow govt decries ASEAN coup response
On the anniversary of the military coup in Myanmar, a spokesperson for the government-in-exile said ASEAN had failed to lay out concrete plans to implement its Five-Point Consensus.
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Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (left) and Myanmar military junta chief Min Aung Hlaing meet in the Myanmar capital of Naypyidaw on Jan. 7. (AFP/Stringer)
M
yanmar’s government-in-exile has criticized ASEAN’s “lack of leadership” in response to last year’s military coup in the country, which uprooted democracy and created an ongoing humanitarian crisis.
The Feb. 1, 2021, coup threw Myanmar into disarray, triggering mass protests and a violent crackdown on dissent, which saw more than 1,500 civilians killed and thousands more arrested by junta forces. The suppression efforts have largely failed to dampen resistance to the junta, even under severe pandemic stress.
An official from the exiled Myanmar National Unity Government (NUG) said on Tuesday that ASEAN had failed to lay out concrete plans to implement its own intervention mandate, particularly on delivering humanitarian relief.
NUG spokesperson Sasa insisted that ASEAN could not just set out its demands – known as the Five-Point Consensus (5PC) – and then sit back and wait for results.
“There is no strategy to implement them. There is no inclusiveness in engagement,” he said in a virtual discussion cohosted by the Thai Public Broadcasting Service and the Asia News Network (ANN) on the one-year anniversary of the coup.
The NUG was formed by the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), a group of elected lawmakers and members of parliament who were ousted in the coup d’etat in Naypyidaw.
During the putsch, security forces arrested political leaders and officials of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party, including State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, who had struck a precarious alliance with Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, for the better part of a decade. Those who escaped regrouped to form the NUG.
