[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index
][Thread Index
]
Democracy in Asia.
Democracy in Asia
*****************
Friday, July 25, 1997; Page A22
The Washington Post
SECRETARY OF State Madeleine Albright will spend
the
next few days in Malaysia, meeting with her
counterparts from
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
ASEAN was
planning to celebrate its 30th anniversary and
the admission of
three new members -- Burma, Laos and Cambodia.
But a
recent coup in Cambodia and continuing
repression in Burma
are souring the mood.
ASEAN has long held to a policy of
non-interference in the
affairs of its members and prospective members.
But the July 5
coup by Cambodia strongman Hun Sen shocked the
organization into abandoning that approach.
ASEAN this week
admitted Burma and Laos, but postponed
Cambodia's entry
while sending mediators to seek a restoration of
some
semblance of democracy.
This policy change reflects an important new
understanding that
the United States, too, is coming to, though
fitfully: that a
dictatorship in one country is destabilizing to
neighbors, and
that world and regional stability depend on the
spread of
openness and tolerance. In Southeast Asia,
Burma's policy of
slave labor forces refugees into Thailand and
Bangladesh; the
narco-thug connections of regimes in both Burma and
Cambodia spill over into other Asian nations;
their instability
and corruption discourage investment throughout
the region.
No wonder Malaysia's deputy premier, Anwar Ibrahim,
recently called on ASEAN to consider a policy of
"constructive
interventions."
Making these effective requires flexible
approach\es. In
Cambodia, Hun Sen will soon seek to legitimate
his coup by
convening the National Assembly, which, duly
cowed by the
butchery of officials opposed to his regime,
will name a new
puppet prime minister. Japan, sadly, seems ready
to accept this
constitutional fig leaf and resume aid to the
government,
sending a wrong signal not only to Hun Sen but
to any other
would-be usurper. The United States is right to
insist on a
return of real democracy and a guarantee of free
elections next
May before resuming aid.
Burma's regime is as illegitimate as Cambodia's,
the only
difference being that it has held power
unlawfully already for
seven years. Why ASEAN admitted Burma but not
Cambodia
is unclear; having done so, it has an obligation
to promote a
dialogue between Burma's junta and its rightful
leader, Aung
San Suu Kyi.
The nine ASEAN nations range from Philippine
democracy to
Vietnam's creaking Communist dictatorship. But
all increasingly
depend for their prosperity on investment and
trade, open
borders and open minds. The Philippines' foreign
secretary,
Domingo Siazon, reflected this when he told the
International
Herald Tribune that ASEAN must not neglect the
"moral and
human" dimension as it expands -- the values of
"tolerance,
patience, openness and consensus-building."
Those are the
values now threatened by corrupt tyrants in
Burma and
Cambodia.
(Washington Post, 25 July 1997)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
News and Information Dept.
All Burma Students'Democratic Organisation (ABSDO) [Australia]
Tel/Fax: 61+03+98132613
--------------------------------------------------------------------------