ASEAN’s dedication to retain its integrity within the face of Cambodia’s dalliance with the Burmese junta shall be examined at an upcoming in-person assembly of the bloc’s international ministers, analysts mentioned Monday.
If member-states wish to preserve the Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from self-destructing, they need to reject any makes an attempt by 2022 ASEAN chair and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to permit the Burmese regime’s international minister to attend that assembly, not less than one observer mentioned.
“If Cambodia insists on inviting the junta to ASEAN conferences, we must always say ‘no.’ If want be, we must always simply boycott the conferences. … For my part, [Foreign Minister] Retno mustn’t attend,” Rizal Sukma, a former Indonesian ambassador to Britain, advised BenarNews, referring to Retno Marsudi.
“If Cambodia desires to destroy ASEAN, and different ASEAN international locations are okay with it, so be it,” added Sukma, a senior researcher on the Jakarta-based Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research (CSIS).
The feedback by Sukma and different analysts adopted Hun Sen’s go to to Naypyidaw on Friday and Saturday, throughout which he met with the army coup chief Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.
Hun Sen is ready to host his first main ASEAN assembly as chairman of the regional bloc on Jan. 18-19 at a international ministers’ “retreat” in Siem Reap.
As of Monday, BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated on-line information service, confirmed via the Malaysian international minister’s press secretary that the nation’s high diplomat could be attending subsequent week’s assembly nearly.
In Jakarta, a spokesman for Indonesia’s international ministry mentioned ASEAN member-countries could be briefed on the assembly in regards to the outcomes of Hun Sen’s go to to Myanmar, however he declined to say if International Minister Retno Marsudi would take part.
Officers from each international locations declined to touch upon Hun Sen’s journey to Naypyidaw or the likelihood that the Burmese junta’s international minister could be attending subsequent week’s assembly in Siem Reap. Elsewhere, officers on the international ministries of ASEAN member-states Thailand and the Philippines didn’t instantly reply to BenarNews requests for remark.
In the meantime, a spokesman for Cambodia’s international ministry advised Radio Free Asia (RFA) that it could quickly be identified if Min Aung Hlaing was invited to Siem Reap as nicely.
“We’ll subject a press assertion quickly within the coming days,” Koy Koung mentioned.
Myanmar’s army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, was optimistic when requested in regards to the end result of Hun Sen’s go to.
The go to “will assist our illustration [in ASEAN],” he advised RFA, claiming that the junta had fulfilled one level of ASEAN’s five-point roadmap to democracy agreed to final April – ending violence.
He was referring to a joint assertion issued on the finish of Hun Sen’s two-day journey to Myanmar that mentioned the junta had prolonged a ceasefire with all Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) till the top of 2022.
The assertion made no point out of pro-democracy activists.
On Monday, the Cambodian PM defended his go to, claiming to have achieved three main outcomes of the five-point consensus: a ceasefire, humanitarian support to all events, and sending an ASEAN particular envoy to have a dialogue with all stakeholders.
A employee adjusts an ASEAN flag at a gathering corridor in Kuala Lumpur, Oct. 28, 2021. [Reuters]
‘Save the integrity of ASEAN’
Analysts and human proper activists, nevertheless, are upset about Hun Sen’s go to as a result of he didn’t meet with pro-democracy leaders and as a substitute heard in regards to the disaster solely from the aspect of the junta, which toppled the elected authorities in a coup final February.
Some dismissed the joint assertion issued by Cambodia and Myanmar as a pack of lies. They mentioned that any good points ASEAN had made by shutting out Min Aung Hlaing from the bloc’s major summit final yr for non-implementation of the five-point roadmap have been undermined by Hun Sen’s go to.
The joint assertion “is a misguided and harmful try to deceptively painting a breakthrough, when the truth is his unilateral actions have dramatically weakened ASEAN’s collective leverage to resolve the Myanmar disaster,” Charles Santiago, chair of the group ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), mentioned in a press release Sunday.
“Hun Sen’s rogue diplomacy is a risk to ASEAN,” APHR mentioned.
Males Nath, Sweden-based consultant of Cambodia Watchdog Council, advised RFA that the results of Hun Sen’s journey to Myanmar was “zero.”
“It’s a exact opposite from the ASEAN mechanism for resolving the Burmese subject,” he mentioned Monday.
“What [Hun Sen] has completed by referring to the ASEAN mechanism has merely brought on a divide in ASEAN.”
The Cambodian PM prioritizes ASEAN unity over democracy or human rights, mentioned Hunter S. Marston, a doctorate scholar at ANU School of Asia and the Pacific on the Australian Nationwide College.
“Sadly, ASEAN has no consensus on the best way to method Myanmar, so we’re about to see whether or not extra democratic-leaning states inside the bloc will stand as much as Hun Sen [and] maintain the Myanmar junta accountable,” he advised BenarNews.
Heads of different ASEAN member-states must get “instantly concerned … to save lots of the integrity of ASEAN as a regional discussion board,” Malaysian analyst MD Mahbubul Haque, a lecturer in Worldwide Research on the College Sultan Zainal Abidin, advised BenarNews.
“The Indonesian, Malaysian, or Singaporean PM or president ought to carefully work on the Myanmar disaster. You may’t depend on Thailand or Philippines,” Haque mentioned.
“Don’t let [Hun Sen do it] alone.”
Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated on-line information service.