Following a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in Yangon focused on the situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, it was “deeply disappointing” that the regional body failed to act decisively to address the ongoing crisis, despite urging from Malaysia.
That Malaysia failed to convince other ASEAN members of the urgent need to act is deeply disappointing. Through continued inaction, ASEAN risks failing the people at its center. This meeting should have been an opportunity to take decisive action to protect vulnerable civilians and hold the Myanmar government and military accountable.
Unfortunately, though not unexpectedly, it seems it was largely an act of political theatre.
Sadly, ASEAN foreign ministers caved to Aung San Suu Kyi’s sweet talk and have seemingly put the Rohingya issue on the back burner. That’s bad news for the tens of thousands of Rohingya still trapped without aid access in Rakhine State, and it’s bad news for the region, which will ultimately pay the price for Myanmar’s inability or unwillingness to properly address the situation. The bottom line is that evidence and scores of reports of abuses fell on deaf ears.
I praise the comments delivered at the meeting by Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman, which highlighted alleged human rights abuses and called on Myanmar and other regional governments to take stronger steps to address the crisis, but lament Anifah Aman’s failure to convince regional counterparts of the need to take immediate action.
It was encouraging to hear that the Malaysian Minister highlighted alleged abuses and raised the prospect of an ASEAN investigating team made up of independent experts. Yet it appears this call too fell on deaf ears in Yangon. That’s unfortunate because such an inquiry, if truly independent, would contribute to revealing the truth and ensuring that abuses are not met with impunity.
During the meeting, Anifah Aman expressed “grave concern” over “reports from many sources alleging arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings including of children, rape by soldiers, burning of Rohingya villages as well as destruction of homes and places of worship.
Invoking the 2015 regional refugee crisis, he also declared that the situation clearly constitutes a “regional concern.” He called for immediate humanitarian access to Rakhine State, as well as for ASEAN to establish an independent group of experts to investigate the situation there.
Despite his urgings, however, the meeting ended without clear commitments from the Myanmar government beyond a pledge to keep ASEAN counterparts updated on developments in Rakhine State. ASEAN foreign ministers besides Anifah Aman largely shied away from questioning the Myanmar government’s actions in the context of the crisis.
ASEAN ministers gave Aung San Suu Kyi a pass and are effectively allowing the Myanmar authorities get away with murder in Rakhine State. Malaysia was right to raise the spectre of ethnic cleansing and even genocide—acts in which ASEAN risks complicity if it continues to sit on the sidelines.
The Malaysian government’s strong public stance on the situation for Rohingya in Myanmar did not absolve it of the urgent responsibility to address the needs of Rohingya refugees at home.
At the meeting, the Minister mentioned the 56,000 Rohingya refugees we have in Malaysia. If the government is serious about stepping up and providing some real regional leadership on this issue, it needs to start at home. That means providing Rohingya in Malaysia with access to legal registration, basic services, and job opportunities.
Signing the 1951 Refugee Convention would also go a long way to demonstrating a serious level of commitment.