TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Myanmar opposition appeals for ‘creative’ ASEAN action
Myanmar's shadow National Unity Government appeals to ASEAN to seek partners and "creative solutions" to get the junta regime to comply with the regional Five-Point Consensus.
Change Size
Myanmar migrants hold up portraits of Aung San Suu Kyi as they take part in a demonstration outside the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok on Feb. 1, 2021, after Myanmar's military detained the country's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup. (AFP/Lillian SUWANRUMPHA )
I
ndonesia must seek practical and immediate solutions to navigate the coup crisis in Myanmar if it wishes to stick to ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus (5PC), a Burmese shadow government official has said, as the junta regime’s “sham election” planned for next year posed a risk to the nation’s future and the security of the wider region.
Pressure is mounting for the new chair of the Southeast Asian bloc to deliver after ASEAN leaders last week opted for more inaction over Myanmar’s situation, although top diplomats from the region were tasked to calibrate the demands that the military rulers had blatantly ignored.
After 20 months of calls for an immediate cessation of violence, a return to democracy by peaceful means and inclusive dialogue falling on deaf ears, ASEAN is under pressure to act against the noncompliant military regime.
A National Unity Government (NUG) official said the time to act was nigh, as any election that took place under junta rule risked entrenching its power for more years to come.
The NUG is the shadow government run by former members and sympathizers of the ousted civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The Nobel Peace Prize winner was detained in a putsch in February 2021 and put on trial over unsubstantiated claims of election fraud the year prior.
The junta has scheduled a new election for August 2023 in hopes of legitimizing its power, even though opposition to the military was high even before the 2020 elections.
NUG Deputy Foreign Minister Moe Zaw Oo told a Centre of Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) forum on Thursday that the junta was already making its next move.
