Posted on by Kit

ASEAN Charter – why sign it in Singapore Summit if it will be instantly discredited by Myanmar?

United Nations special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari has asked ASEAN nations “to turn rhetoric into real action”.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday after a two-day visit to Malaysia, which had included “substantive discussions” with the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Gambari said:

“We appreciate the strong statement coming out of ASEAN but now is the time to work together for concrete results.”

The next one month must see concrete results from both Gambari and the ASEAN Summit in Singapore to get the political dialogue for national reconciliation and democratization in Burma off the ground or ASEAN and UN would again be led up by the garden path by Myanmese military junta to aid and abet the repressive and corrupt military rule in the narco-state.

Although Gambari said that the United Nations will not compel ASEAN to suspend Myanmar as a member but instead encourage it to remain engaged with the junta government to restore the democratic process and respect for human rights in the country, the suspension and expulsion of Myanmar from the regional organization must remain an option of the ASEAN governments and peoples if the Myanmese military junta remain totally impervious after two decades to calls for a tripartite dialogue among the generals, pro-democracy activists led by Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic nationalities to start the process of national reconciliation and democratization.

The claim by the Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar that there is no mechanism for the suspension of Myanmar in ASEAN is not persuasive or convincing enough to justify the junta’s continued membership in ASEAN when it persists with its unrepentant, intransigent and flagrant suppression of fundamental human rights which has brought ASEAN into international odium and disrepute.

For instance, what is the purpose of the signing of the ASEAN Charter at the 13th ASEAN Summit in Singapore next month if the Myanmese military junta is at liberty to defy national and international opinion, enjoying full impunity to continue its egregious violation of human rights — turning the ASEAN Charter instantly into a discredited document and ASEAN the laughing stock of the world?

22 Replies to “ASEAN Charter – why sign it in Singapore Summit if it will be instantly discredited by Myanmar?”

  3. “For instance, what is the purpose of the signing of the ASEAN Charter at the 13th ASEAN Summit in Singapore next month if the Myanmese military junta is at liberty to defy national and international opinion, enjoying full impunity to continue its egregious violation of human rights – turning the ASEAN Charter instantly into a discredited document and ASEAN the laughing stock of the world?” KIT

    ASEAN has been the laughing stock of the world right from the very start. It cannot turn into something it already is!

  4. Of course they can afford to pay to get the best, but all these pimps want to have their fun for free. You think that they are not raping Myanmar by exploiting their resources and by allowing the junta to keep their funds in Singapore ?

  8. “…there is no such thing as a free lunch.” Undergrad2

    Tell that to UMNO. Not only do they have free lunches, they actually get voted in by the rakyat to steal from the public purse. Are the voters stupid or what ?

  9. It is a matter of time before UMNO died a natural death, the main reason is having too much free lunch. As for the voters, they are not stupid, is just that their mathematics are poor. It is also a matter a time before the economy collapse, that’s when the voters will got cleverer because they no longer can afford to pay for the free lunch, a natural process. Like what happened in Myanmar. The Junta don’t care, they killed the monks to stay in power! But will UMNO kill the Imams if they mismanaged the economy, and cling on to power forever? Can we stop that from happening?

  10. Will the scheduled signing of the ASEAN Charter at the 13th ASEAN Summit in Singapore on Nov 20th in the face of Myanmese military junta’s intransigence be a discredited document making ASEAN the laughing stock of the world?

    Unless we know the contents of the Charter, we can’t really now say for sure, either way. The ASEAN Charter, whilst giving ASEAN a legal personality and a framework, also provides an opportunity to engage Myanmar constructively.

    Don’t forget that during its last summit in KL in 2005, leaders of the 10-member ASEAN including the military-ruled Myanmar, signed on 12th December a pact, called the “Kuala Lumpur Declaration” to promote human rights democracy, human rights and obligations, transparency and good governance and strengthening democratic institutions.

    This means all, including Myanmar have committed to the ASEAN Charter to be signed in Nov 20th 2007 to include the promotion of democracy, human rights and obligations as one of the Charter’s main objectives.

    It then depends on the high-level task force that is tasked with the drafting and fine-tuning of the terms and conditions of the final Charter for signing by ASEAN’s leaders – how clever and skillful they are, as draftsmen, and whether they are libertarian in attitude to lean on the side of human rights and democracy.

    We have our Tan Sri Musa Hitam at the chair of the committee preparing a draft of the landmark document. I don’t think he is particularly fond of Myanmar’s generals’ governance or human rights records. He and the others in the high-level task force know that it is no point inserting human rights, good governance and democracy as an objective of ASEAN, and yet have such an objective ignored and flouted with impunity. Musa is on record in an interview with Agence France Presse on 24th Aug 2006 for saying “I would like to say and I’m pushing this, the inclusion of the need for democracy, based on good governance and respect for human rights. I want this to be in, it’s very difficult but I want this to be in otherwise it is meaningless. We’re looking at the decision-making process through implementation, monitoring and even sanctions mechanisms”.

    Depending on how they draft the Charter, they could, for example, set down the legal mechanisms in the Charter that with two thirds majority ASEAN members could either impose sanctions, suspend or expel any member (like Myanmar), who persistently flout ASEAN’s objectives, from the Group.

    Another fellow committee member of caliber whom I have the highest regard and who shares Musa’s views is Professor Tommy Koh, Singapore’s representative in the high-level task. Tommy (LLM Harvard) has always been a libertarian (that’s why he’s not made it to the PAP’s ministerial hierarchy as commensurate his ability) but he distinguished himself internationally as the President of the Third U.N. Conference on The Law of the Sea in 1990, and, if I were not mistaken, at one time one of the leading contenders for the post of Secretary General of the United Nations. Now Tommy also expressed sentiments in accord with Musa. He is on record to have said, “the Charter, will include agreements to establish an ASEAN human rights body and to ensure ASEAN members comply with agreements signed among members. In the past our record for honoring our agreements and commitment has been dismal with only 30 percent of agreements implemented. Under the charter, the Secretary General will be given the task of monitoring compliance, and non compliance will be reported to ASEAN leaders for action.

    Would action include suspension or expulsion? Well in Musa’s own words, “it could be, on a more serious note — chuck them out, or expulsion. It could mean just a resolution against them. We are looking at all these options.”

    I would say that even if we don’t have much confidence in ASEAN’s politicians who actually sign the ASEAN Charter for their governments, we should not underestimate the professional caliber of the actual members of the high-level task force drafting the Charter and the contribution they could make in solving the Myanmar’s problem. It is what they actually draft, the fine prints, the nuances, and the procedures built in that finally matter – not so much, the ministers who look only at the general bigger picture, do their usual posturing for good image, and sign on dotted lines…..

    I say we should maybe hold the breath awhile until November 20th and see exactly what the 30-plus-page Charter, with 13 chapters and a thick annex of relevant documents contain before concluding whether the Charter will bring credit or discredit to ASEAN.

    For two things can happen (if and assuming this back room high level task force is clever and committed enough to build into the Charter stringent terms upholding governance human rights and democracy with the mechanisms to enforce them) :-

    1. Myanmar would not sign it. Then it is fine. It automatically is dropped as a member of ASEAN as good as being expelled. This has to be the result because in 2005 (KL Declaration), Myanmar had, in principle, agreed with the rest to endorse human rights, good governance and democracy as an objective of the ASEAN Charter and is therefore now estopped from otherwise reneging this principle.

    2. Mynmar signs it. This means that the military junta is obliged to lay down the road map to national reconciliation and freeing democracy iconAung San Suu Kyi who won the popular vote – or else the mechanism within the Charter would provide for action to be taken against Myanmar (where before the Charter, as Hamid said, there’s no mechanism to suspend or expel Myanmar and that’s why Ibrahim Gambari is not expecting ASEAN to immediately suspend or expel Myanmar but merely asked ASEAN nations “to turn rhetoric into real action”!)

    Subject to certain conditions, the ASEAN Charter may provide the institutional and legal framework for “real action” within context of what Gambari said and probably meant. For these various reasons,

    I would therefore look at the ASEAN Charter as a possible opportunity to resolve ASEAN’s predicament over Myanmar.

  12. Jeffrey : “Mynmar signs it. This means that the military junta is obliged to lay down the road map …”

    The only map the Myanmar generals are interested in drawing is on their bedsheets when they wake up every morning, when their mistresses are out of town.

  13. “You’re rarely wrong, Godfather! But pimps taking turns to rape one prostitute when they can afford to pay to get the best?? I’m sorry I don’t follow you” – Undergrad2.

    Hello friend, you are also rarely wrong but the question of pimps affording to pay to get the best, and that there is no “free lunch” does not equally arise because pimps get their lunch “free” as part of the “interview and recruitment process” of the job applicants to evaluate their “qualifications and skills”….

    Godfather’s analogy of Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand being “pimps” is to underline the three countries’ main concern – which like prostitutes – is chiefly if not wholly “economic” rather than conventional morals or good repute….but if these 3 are “pimps” than the other ASEAN members like Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia with their socialist (communist) system must be all whores amongst whom Cambodia with her tradition and history of human rights violation, nay genocide under Khmer Rouge & Pol Pot), must be the chief whore!

    Between the 3 “pimps”, Singapore is hardest to understand; being wealthy and stomach full one would have thought that according to Abraham Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs, it is time to cater for the people’s minds and loosen control and liberalise more freedoms but look at its ranking in the RSF Worldwide Press Freedom Index? It is even worse than Malaysia’s position!

    Neither can one expects much from the other pimp Thailand. Thailand is presently run by a military junta as well, you think it will condemn Myanmese counterpart for suppressing street demonstrations on grounds of democracy or human rights?

    The Thai military govt has recently promulgated a new constitution whereby there is a restriction that the Thai government cannot sign anything unless prior approval has to be obtained from parliament which presumably is controlled by Thai generals!

    According to secretary general of the Jakarta-based ASEAN Secretariat (Ong Keng Yong), although there is always a possibility temperamental outburst by Myanmar’s generals who might not sign the ASEAN Charter, there is also another quarter – the Thai generals – that might derail the adoption of the Charter. The Charter would be in a limbo if Thailand, a founding member of ASEAN, is prevented from signing by military dictated constitutional demands back home.

    In the case of Malaysia, we’re at least pretending that our human rights record is getting better no matter press freedom is plummeting.

    All these Nudegate and Squatgate had deserved at least the Dzaiddin’s commission to look into police actions that at least conceived the embryonic IPCMC (though fetus not delivered as yet).

    Threats of arrests against RPK, PKR vice president R. Sivarasa and DSAI’s personal assistant Sim Tze Tzin have not so far been carried out!

    Of late, you don’t hear of ISA arrests. In fact, today (as reported in The Star front page), in what I would consider a fierce bending backwards to show the independence of judiciary (after the hullabaloo of Lingam’s video clip) the High Court, in an unprecedented move, delivered a land mark decision to award RM 2.5 million damages to an ex ISA detainee, Abdul malik Hussin who had sued former inspector general Tan Sri Rahim Noor and the Malaysian government for assault, humiliation, prolonged physical and mental ill-treatment whilst under ISA detention! (There’s no report that the AG intends to appeal). What a precedent !

    Our Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar can now say to UN’s Gambari that – in comparative terms of human rights within ASEAN members – Malaysia is not too bad and therefore placed in vantage position to speak louder and lead the grouping on how to deal with Myanmar renegades vis-à-vis the promulgation of the ASEAN Charter. So amongst the 3 ‘pimps’, we show the greater of promise of redemption! :)

  14. One should appreciate the difficulties the high level task force comprising Tan Sri Musa, Prof Koh & the rest may face in trying to draft a Charter (Constitutional framework) which all ten ASEAN members will accept.

    As Singapore’s Second Minister for Foreign Affairs Raymond Lim said frankly, “I think we need to take into account quite critically what is the history, the realities and culture of all the 10 ASEAN members states.”

    You just try to imagine the difficulty of trying to draft a Common Code of Moral Conduct and having it adopted as a basis of conduct from now forward amongst (to stretch the unfortunate analogy further) a band of so called “pimps” and “whores”! :)

  15. Jeffrey Says:
    …
    Between the 3 “pimps”, Singapore is hardest to understand; being wealthy and stomach full one would have thought that according to Abraham Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs, it is time to cater for the people’s minds and loosen control and liberalise more freedoms but look at its ranking in the RSF Worldwide Press Freedom Index? It is even worse than Malaysia’s position!
    ….

    Quoting your words, I do believe Singapore is trying to look after the higher social needs of ITS PEOPLE but somebody has to pay for these higher needs.

    Singapore is run like a MNC. As long as the bottomline is healthy, anything goes. The so-called higher social needs of Marslow are being addressed locally in Singapore because they need to attract the more sophisticated professionals and intellectuals beside retaining their own local talents. All for the sake of further economic growth. Same for investments in other countries with dubious governments and allowing these governments to deposit funds in Singapore’s banking system.

    Same for US, UK, Russia, China etc …. All countries are selfish by nature. Their first and foremost concern is the welfare of their citizens (although this may not be true in Malaysia) and they won’t mind stooping down and taking advantage of weaker parties towards this end.

  16. There are a valuable business prospective with Myanmar human capital as labour. They are hard working, good attitude and cheaper cost. The cartel of lord of those rings which control the regional activites of ASEAN would rather have the best plan fit for all to be carry out rather than talking over human rights here.
    Putting the Junta will be the best ‘barrier’ to locked up any form of discussion for a better Myanmar.
    Anyway, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam wouldn’t want to face up with another competitor in the business world when it comes to attract FDIs. Look at Cambodia and Laos, they are also stepping up their country economic front to gear for the growing demand in globalization. Aren’t that scary ?

  17. You are of course right that all countries are selfish by nature whose foremost concern is the welfare of their citizens and nobody grudges the MNC government of Singapore that, comparing, has done a damn good job in managing the country in all respects and creating wealth amongst its citizens. However “higher needs” in Abragam Maslow’s paradigm are not just basic social needs like housing, jobs, good public transportation, corruption free public delivery and health care system, CPF (although, admittedly, all these are fundamentally are the first in importance) but after all these are satisfied, what about the the so called higher needs, mental, emotional and spiritual? The PAP is already ensconced strongly in power. Singapore has so much reserves that they don’t know where to spend them productively. Literacy is very high in Singpaore with meritoxcracy and all that. The Govt (esp 2nd echelon free from the ‘seige mentality’ of Harry Lee’s generation should relax lah, give more freedom of expression, allow more dissent to the educated citizens whose mind and spirit need also to be fed in tandem with first World cultural milieu and best practices : all these relaxations are not going to chase foreign investors away (more likely it is an attractive factor for cosmolitan crowd); neither will it really shake PAP’s grip on power if it remains competent and continues to deliver the goods. Harry LKY himself says one cannot control the Net but Singapore leaders control the Net more than us (that’s why its Press Freedom Index ranking is worse than us). Nobody there dares ridicule government leaders in public forum as (for comparison) we do here without being arrested or sued for defamation. Yes they think as long as the bottomline is healthy, anything goes, but the argument if bottomline is healthy, the more the reason to take care and allow from top line freedom of expression because the government & people can afford it. So far the attitude is still Government knows best. Isn’t this arrogance of power?

  18. Jeffrey: “Hello friend, …. pimps get their lunch “free” as part of the “interview and recruitment process” of the job applicants to evaluate their “qualifications and skills”….”

    I think you’re confused perhaps from lack of sleep, between a “free lunch” and a “free ride”.

  19. “….//…I think you’re confused perhaps from lack of sleep, between a “free lunch” and a “free ride”….//…”

    In this context, I readily yield to your greater clarity of understanding of the difference. :)

  21. AAB couldn’t manage a stronger term than “strongly disapprove” of the Burmese Junta’s action while other nations have used stronger terms(at least). And as if this isn’t tepid enough, the ugly FM has to spring up and declare that Asean would NEVER expel Burma! Makes you puke, no?

  22. US slaps new sanctions on Myanmar
    http://www.asianewsnet.net/news.php?aid=12961

    “”These are targeted sanctions against specific individuals who are key decision-makers in the junta or are linked to human rights abuses. And this approach works better than sweeping restrictions. It brought North Korea to the negotiating table,” she said.

    She added that this second set of sanctions in a month illustrates “that the administration is taking a strong stance, reflecting the public opinion in the US”. “

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