Non- Intervention Is No More, ASEAN Is Urged To Suppress The Junta Myanmar Administration By It’s Member

 

Indonesia and the three ASEAN countries are reportedly pushing the association of Southeast Asian countries to increase pressure on Myanmar’s Junta military faction.

 

According to four diplomatic sources, during the meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers earlier this week, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines were united in demanding that the association put more pressure on Myanmar’s military junta.

 

The four countries assessed that the Myanmar military junta had shown no progress in complying with the Five Consensus Points to deal with the post-coup crisis agreed at the April summit in Jakarta.

 

 

During the meeting, this year’s ASEAN chairman, Brunei Darussalam, finally decided not to invite the leader of the Myanmar junta, General Min Aung Hlaing, to the virtual ASEAN Summit which will take place October 26-28. Instead, ASEAN is planning to invite ‘non-political representatives’ from Myanmar.

 

The decision was considered contradicted by ASEAN’s policies related to nurturing and non-intervention which had been firmly held by member countries for decades.

 

In his tweet, Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said the outcome of the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting was a “difficult but necessary decision to uphold ASEAN’s credibility.”

 

Meanwhile, Philippine Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin said the Southeast Asian bloc could no longer take a neutral stance towards Myanmar.

 

“If we give in, our credibility as a real regional organization will disappear. We are a group of people who always agree with each other on pointless things”.

 

In line with Balakrishnan and Locsin, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi also said that Indonesia proposed that Myanmar should not be represented by political representatives at the ASEAN Summit in the upcoming future.

 

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said the junta faction’s decision to forbade the ASEAN special envoy to Myanmar from meeting Aung San Suu Kyi, means they did not honor its commitment to the association. Jokowi emphasized his support for ASEAN’s decision not to invite the junta faction to the summit.