Asian Nations Resist The West's Pressure On Human Rights : Burma's Bid For ASEAN Membership Reaffirmed 
International Herald Tribune
December 2, 1996
Michael Richardson

By avoiding a decision on when Burma will join the Association of South East Asian Nations, leaders of the group want to show that they will not give in to pressure from the West on the issue of human rights, analysts said Sunday.

At an informal meeting in Jakarta on Saturday, the association's heads of government reaffirmed a decision to admit Burma as a full member but stopped short of saying when they might do so.

The ASEAN countries are hoping that condemnation of human-rights abuses in Burma at the United Nations and by Western countries, especially the United States and the 15 European Union countries, will diminish over the next six months as the Burmese military regime responds to external pressure for change.

The ASEAN leaders "don't want to be seen as defending what the Western media calls political repression," said Juwono Sudarsono, deputy head of the National Resilience Institute in Jakarta, which trains Indonesian military officers. "They feel they must provide some degree of commitment but leave the timetable open until events are favorable."

Ali Alatas, the Indonesian foreign minister, said the seven members of ASEAN — Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — were strongly committed to "the speedy realization of an ASEAN comprising all 10 Southeast Asian countries."

He said they had agreed that Cambodia, Laos and Burma should be admitted simultaneously, with the timing of such a move to be announced "in due time."

Under a previously announced schedule, Cambodia and Laos were to become full members of ASEAN at the time of the association's 30th anniversary meeting in Kuala Lumpur in July 1997; Burma also wanted to join then.

Goh Chok Tong, Singapore's prime minister, said ASEAN leaders did not want to make a distinction between prospective member countries "because if you leave out one, then the Western press and some Western people will comment that Myanmar has been isolated by ASEAN countries, which is not so." Myanmar is the name the current government has adopted for Burma.

He said that the group did not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and that domestic politics were not a factor in eligibility for membership.

The United Nations, the United States and the European Union have criticized the Burmese military government for human-rights abuses and for a recent crackdown on the pro-democracy movement led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Shortly before the ASEAN summit, Burma's state-run press accused Washington of trying to undermine the country's attempt to become a full member of ASEAN. It has been an observer since July, along with Laos and Cambodia.

General Than Shwe, head of the Burmese government, attended the Jakarta summit but avoided speaking to the media.

Analysts said ASEAN leaders still appeared to differ on the issue of when Burma should join the group.

They said Malaysia and Indonesia wanted to grant full membership to Burma, Laos and Cambodia by the time if the 30th anniversary meeting.

"The Myanmar of today is not the Myanmar of many years ago," said Mahathir bin Mohamad, the Malaysian prime minister, referring to the opening of the country to foreign trade, investment and other contacts — a policy that ASEAN calls "constructive engagement."

He added that if anyone said such engagement had not had a constructive effect, "they must be thoroughly blind."

But analysts said the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore preferred a more flexible approach to Burmese membership, which could involve a delay that would be justified on economic grounds.

On another human-rights issue, East Timor, ASEAN leaders closed ranks around Indonesia.

In a reference to Portugal, they noted with "increasing concern" the efforts of "one member of the EU to introduce extraneous issues such as the question of East Timor in the economic cooperation and interaction between ASEAN and the EU."

Indonesia invaded East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, in 1975 and annexed it a year later. The annexation was not recognized by the UN. Portugal is one of the leading critics of Indonesia's human-rights record in the territory and says East Timor must be allowed self-determination.

Mr. Alatas said Portugal was making the resolution of the East Timor issue a condition for cooperation between ASEAN and the European Union.

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