No to Myanmar to Chair ASEAN 2006 - call for ASEAN-wide campaign

http://dapmalaysia.org

Call on parliamentarians, NGOs, civil society activists and opinion leaders in Malaysia and all other ASEAN countries to come forward and support the campaign to deny the 2006 ASEAN Chair to the Myanmar military junta unless there are meaningful and tangible political reforms on democratization and national reconciliation in Myanmar

Speech
- at the DAP Save Bukit China 20^th Anniversary Dinner
by Lim Kit Siang

(Malacca, Sunday): An important meeting was held in Kuala Lumpur in the past three days – the Workshop of ASEAN Parliamentarians on the Myanmar Issue, organized by the Pro-Democracy Myanmar Caucus of the Malaysian Parliament and attended by parliamentarians from seven ASEAN countries, namely Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia as well as Burmese Parliamentarians-in-exile who were elected in the 1990 general election in Burma.

The three-day meeting of ASEAN Parliamentarians took two important decisions:

The establishment of a protem committee of ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Caucuses on Democracy in Myanmar to promote the establishment and co-ordinate the activities of parliamentary pro-democracy Myanmar Caucuses in individual ASEAN countries; and

The stand that the Myanmar military junta should be disqualified from taking the rotating ASEAN Chair for 2006 unless there are substantial, meaningful and tangible results in political reforms in Myanmar on democratization and national reconciliation.

It can be said that the ASEAN Parliamentarians from six ASEAN countries at the Kuala Lumpur Workshop today had fired the first shot for a regional campaign that in view of the failure of the ASEAN “constructive engagement policy” vis-à-vis Myanmar in the past decade as witnessed by the host of broken promises by the Myanmese military junta on meaningful political reforms on democratization and national reconciliation, Myanmar should not be allowed to take the ASEAN Chair for 2006 unless the ruling Myanmese State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) can show concrete results, such as:

Immediate and unconditional release of Nobel Peace Laureate and Burmese Opposition Leader, Aung San Suu Kyi and all the other over 1,300 political prisoners;

Meaningful tripartite political dialogue involving the military junta, the National League for Democracy-led pro-democracy movement and the ethnic nationalities on political reforms for democratization and national reconciliation;

A new democratic constitution for Burma; and

Free and fair general elections for representative and legitimate democratic institutions.

If the Myanmese military junta is allowed to take the ASEAN Chair for 2006 despite its dismal record and the failure of the ASEAN “constructive engagement” policy with Myanmar, it will be a great blow to ASEAN with its adverse impact on its international image and standing and undesirable economic consequences for the other ASEAN member nations in the era of globalization.

The responsibility to bring Myanmar from the darkness of unredeemed repression and to ensure that the Myanmese military junta live up to its minimal responsibilities as a member of ASEAN as well as the international comity of nations should not be left only to conscientious ASEAN Parliamentarians but must be shared by all other sectors of society in ASEAN countries.

I call on parliamentarians, NGOs, civil society activists and opinion leaders in Malaysia and in all other ASEAN countries to support the campaign to deny the 2006 ASEAN Chair to the Myanmar military junta unless there are meaningful and tangible political reforms on democratization and national reconciliation in Myanmar.

It is not only to the interests of the people of Myanmar but also in the enlightened self-interests of all other ASEAN nations that Burma should end its long night of self-isolation and return to the mainstream of international relations by conducting itself as a responsible member of the international society, by first meeting its ASEAN commitments with a meaningful process of political dialogue, democratization and national reconciliation in Burma.

(28/11/2004)

* Lim Kit Siang, Parliamentary Opposition Leader, MP for Ipoh Timur & DAP Central Policy and Strategic Planning Commission Chairman