[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

Press statement from Burma Solidari



Subject: Press statement from Burma Solidarity Group Malaysia (11-7-97)

Press statement

								   11th July  1997

ASEAN's double standards over Cambodia and Burma

The ASEAN Foreign Ministers' decision yesterday to postpone Cambodia's ASEAN
membership but to admit Burma on July 24 as scheduled confirms, yet once
again, ASEAN's hypocrisy and double standards.

In the first place, the Foreign Ministers' decision has exposed finally and
firmly that ASEAN's so-called commitment to the principle of
non-interference in the internal affairs of another state is an utter myth.
It shows that ASEAN has never been honest or principled about this matter.

When it is convenient, as in the case of Cambodia, ASEAN is prepared to
intervene and interfere in the affairs of another country through
diplomatic, political and economic pressure.

When it is not convenient, as in the case of Burma under the military junta,
the SLORC, ASEAN does nothing to embarass or jeopardise the illegal and
illegitimate regime there.

Malaysia's Foreign Minister Datuk Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has called on the
Cambodian government under Hun Sen to ensure that the National Assembly and
other democratic institutions in that country are not dissolved. We support
this call.

However, how sad and unfortunate that Datuk Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has not
used the occasion to call on the SLORC generals to hand over peacefully
power to the National League for Democracy (NLD) under the leadership of
Aung San Suu Kyi, in accordance with the democratic verdict of the Burmese
people as expressed through the general election on 27 May 1990.

The Foreign Ministers of ASEAN are not unaware that the SLORC military
gangsters have repeatedly rejected their ever-so-gentle suggestions to
conduct a dialogue with the NLD and other legitimate Burmese groups. This is
a direct slap on the collective face of ASEAN;  it is yet another reminder
that ASEAN's  so-called policy of `constructive engagement' is nothing but a
fig leaf which has failed miserably to conceal the illegalities and
indecencies of the SLORC military junta.

If what Hun Sen did in Cambodia a few days ago is a coup, then the SLORC
junta's continued refusal to hand over power to representatives duly elected
by the Burmese people was and is a coup. There can be no doubt on this
whatsoever.

The question is: Why the double standards by ASEAN?

We had before warned that ASEAN's condoning the SLORC's coup in Burma could
and would encourage coups in other parts of Southeast Asia and even in ASEAN
itself. Events of the past few days in Cambodia have validated our dire warning.

We very much regret that the ASEAN Foreign Ministers had failed yesterday to
take a principled stand against the SLORC military junta in Burma by also
postponing Burma's membership. The is a terrible shame, and it is utterly
unfair to the people of Burma.

It increasingly appears that after 30 years, ASEAN  is nothing but an
association of political hypocrisy and diplomatic cowardice, repeatedly
betraying its own founding principles in vulgar pursuit of opportunism, and
tying itself up in knots of contradictions.












Fan Yew Teng
Co-ordinator 
Burma Solidarity Group Malaysia.