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Jakarta lacks Myanmar leverage: UN rapporteur
Indonesia’s strategy of engaging intensely with Myanmar’s stakeholders lacks any real pressure and is unlikely to result in meaningful changes, United Nations Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews said on Wednesday.
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Protesters show the three finger salute during a demonstration outside the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok on July 26, 2022. (AFP/Manan Vatsyayana)
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ndonesia’s strategy of engaging intensely with Myanmar’s stakeholders lacks any real pressure and is unlikely to result in meaningful changes, United Nations special rapporteur Tom Andrews said on Wednesday.
ASEAN is moving at a glacial pace, he asserted, meanwhile the regression of its own member states through granting the junta legitimacy continues to wreak havoc on the bloc’s credibility.
But the Foreign Ministry argued that its strategy has yielded measurable results, and that claims of the association backsliding are “factually incorrect”.
Expectations, which began high at the onset of Indonesia’s chairmanship, have noticeably dwindled nine months into Jakarta’s leadership as the situation in Myanmar has continued to worsen.
In April, the most fatal air strike since the February 2021 coup took place in Myanmar’s Sagaing region, followed by an attack on ASEAN’s humanitarian envoys in early May.
Analysts and observers alike have expressed the opinion that no observable progress can be seen concerning the ASEAN peace initiative, the Five-Point Consensus (5PC), which calls for the cessation of violence, dialogue among all parties, the appointment and engagement of a special envoy and humanitarian assistance.
And while Jakarta maintains that its chairmanship has successfully brought about inclusive dialogue with Myanmar’s contesting factions via some 75 engagements, seven out of 10 ASEAN member states this week took the task of engagement upon themselves and stepped beyond the group’s boundaries to join a meeting in Thailand with junta representatives, exposing deep cracks within the organization.
