This letter is in support of Senator Aquilino Pimentel’s strong position against Burma’s scheduled chairmanship of Asean in 2006. Last January 18, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations conducted a public hearing regarding the speech of Sen. Pimentel last December 1. The position taken by Pimentel is clear—“Myanmar does not deserve to chair ASEAN in 2006.”
Letter to the Editor
This letter is in support of Senator Aquilino Pimentel’s strong position against Burma’s scheduled chairmanship of Asean in 2006. Last January 18, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations conducted a public hearing regarding the speech of Sen. Pimentel last December 1. The position taken by Pimentel is clear—“Myanmar does not deserve to chair ASEAN in 2006.”
The Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID), being an international non-government organization advocating for justice and democracy in Burma, has waited long for the Philippine government to once and for all form a foreign policy critical of military-ruled Burma. We believe the Philippine government should stop adhering to the Asean’s constructive engagement policy on Burma because this policy has failed miserably to bring justice and democracy in Burma. Worse, despite pressures from the international community, the military rulers in Rangoon remain insincere in starting democratic political reforms.
Violations of human rights that include rape, arbitrary killings, forced labor, forced relocation and destruction of ethnic villages remain the face of Burma’s human rights record. And despite the promise of the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to address lawlessness
and inhumane acts within the country, the local authorities are still bullying their own citizens.
The power struggle in Burma that led to the ouster of Gen Khin Nyunt last year also brought nothing but another batch of equally repressive generals. Khin Nyunt’s successor, Gen. Soe Win, is known as the mastermind of the Depayin Massacre in Burma. Soe Win’s position is for the military to stay in power at all costs. Right after Khin Nyunt’s fall, the junta echoed the old promise of reforms. Desperate to gain international recognition, the junta reportedly released more than 9,000 prisoners at the height of the Asean Summit in Laos. However, Burma watchers know that most of the released prisoners were not political detainees but petty criminals. Also, the junta shows no sign of freeing opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and has even extended her house arrest for another year.
We believe it is high time for the Philippine government, the ASEAN grouping and the United Nations to change its policy on Burma. The ASEAN should cast out its rogue member.
We only have a year left to block Burma’s chairmanship of the Asean. As the reputed bastion of democracy in Asia and the survivor of a dictatorship, the Philippines has the obligation to lead the ASEAN in criticizing Burma’s human rights record and pressuring Burma to institute democratic reforms inside.
Pimentel is right — when the house of the neighbor is on fire, we cannot just fold our hands and say we cannot interfere. We should at least call the attention of that neighbor that his or her house is on fire. And if Burma is unwilling to change, the ASEAN should not give it the ASEAN chair in 2006 and then call for Burma’s expulsion from the regional grouping.
There is no doubt about it, the Asean’s constructive engagement policy with Burma is a failure. The generals ruling Burma have only used this policy in bullying their own citizens. Burma as ASEAN chair in 2006? This scenario is simply unacceptable.
Augusto Miclat, Jr.
Executive Director
Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID)
#15 Door 15 Casal Bldg. Anonas Rd. Proj.3
Quezon City
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