Media Statement by Liew Chin Tong in George Town on Wednesday, 12^th August 2009:

Increasing calls for Asean to boot out Myanmar

On behalf of the Democratic Action Party of Malaysia we would like to join the international community in denouncing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentencing to three years of hard labour by the court in the Insein Prison in Rangoon.

The fact that Senior General Than Shwe, the leader of Burma’s military dictatorship, has commuted the sentence to a year and a half under house arrest is no consolation. Under her current sentencing she has effectively been disqualified from elections due in her country next year. We have no doubt that these charges are entirely trumped-up, politically motivated, and an affront to democracy, human rights and international rules of law.

Myanmar’s ruling military dictatorship is one of the most brutal in the world, and has been charged by the United Nations with a “crime against humanity” for its systematic abuses of human rights, and condemned internationally for refusing to transfer power to the legally elected government of the country, the party led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

It is in this light that we wish to see a legitimate, democratically elected civilian government established in Myanmar, one that pursues social and economic development and respects human rights, while aiming to rebuild relations with the international community. The Democratic Action Party calls on the Burmese government to observe the protection of human rights spelt out in the ASEAN Charter and for the immediate release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners. We also propose that Myanmar be suspended from ASEAN until the sentencing is overturned and all charges against Dr. Suu Kyi are dropped.

* Liew Chin Tong, DAP International Secretary & MP for Bukit Bendera