Time for ASEAN to step up

Posted on November 2, 2007
Filed Under Burma news |

If the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) wants to have any meaningful future role on the international scene, it has to get serious about Burma.For the grouping’s ten members ( Brunei, Burma Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) the junta has become a major embarrassment.

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Furthermore, economic instability in Burma would be bad news for the whole region. Burma’s role as a major source of methamphetamine and heroin for sale across the region, and the flow of refugees and diseases across the country’s borders are all problems ASEAN is going to have to deal with eventually.

US and European sanctions actually mean they have very little influence over the SPDC. Thanks to their trading with the junta China, Russia and India have the stronger ties to Burma, and presumably can exert more influence.

However, the notoriously xenophobic junta still distrusts its ‘foreign’ trading partners. That is where ASEAN comes in. According to the Alternative Asean Network on Burma (ALT-SEAN BURMA), the SPDC relies on petrol and diesel supplies from Malaysia and Singapore to keep business running and military vehicles on the road. Furthermore, trade with ASEAN accounts for 51.3 percent of its total foreign exchange revenue. Gas sales to Thailand, alone, account for 43 percent

Thailand and Singapore are the SPDC’s biggest sources of new Foreign Direct Investment, with the two countries contributing a staggering 98.61 percent of total foreign direct investment in the past two years. And, it is through Singapore’s financial services that the SPDC and their cronies are able to store and move their ill-gotten wealth away from Burma.

In a report issued last week, ALT-SEAN BURMA accuses ASEAN members of “passing the buck” by using China as an excuse for inaction. They call on ASEAN members to exercise their substantial influence on Burma’s military leaders to secure the delivery of genuine political and economic reforms.

The time for action has come. With the world’s attention on Burma and with Indonesia currently chairing the United Nations Security Council there has never been a better time for ASEAN to show it deserves to be taken seriously.