Australia and ASEAN way

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	Australian Foreign Minister, Mr. Downer tests the "ASEAN way"
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Australia's Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, was on target in Kuala 
Lumpur yesterday when he told reporters that political reform in Burma 
was progressing "at snail's pace" - at the speed of "glue up a hill". He 
also announced that a special envoy, Mr John Dauth,  a senior diplomat, 
would go to Burma to assess the saituation and meet the Nobel laureate 
Aung San Suu Kyi.

Mr Downer's statement was important in airing Australia's continuing 
concern at the refusal of Burma's generals to hand over to the elected 
government; it stood up to the claims of the Burmese Foreign Minister, U 
Ohn Gyaw, that Mr Downer had not raised human rights  issues. 
Symbolically, it demonstrated that Australia will meet the  challenge of 
defending democratic values in the region at the same time as it seeks to 
accommodate what Malaysia's Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad,
described, after Burma's admission to the Association of South-East Asian 
Nations, as "the ASEAN way".

Codemning American investment sanctions on Burma, Dr Mahathir said: "We 
will resolve our problem in our own way and in our time. No one, but no 
one, should assume that only they know the solutions to all problems." Dr 
Mahathir's assertion and Mr Downer's latest response illustrate the
conundrum facing Australia: how to uphold and promote human rights, 
democratic values and political
diversity in a region with a different history and political traditions.

If Australians want to be taken seriously in our region, we can no longer 
do so as a European nation standing at the margin. We have to come to 
terms with the dichotomy between our ways of governing and the ways of 
our neighbors and help solve thorny issues. Mr Downer  demonstrated a healthy
candor. The US Secretary of State, Dr Madeleine Albright, also urged 
ASEAN leaders to meet Aung San Suu Kyi and support her "because she's an 
elected leader"; in admitting Burma, ASEAN accepted having to deal with 
Burma's problems, she said.

What is the "ASEAN way"? Perhaps we have seen something of it in 
President Suharto's agreement to a meeting in Indonesia eariler this 
month between South Africa's President Nelson Mandela and the jailed 
Timor resistence leader Xanana Gusmao. It has been evident in  efforts by 
ASEAN to mediate for a peaceful resolution of Cambodia's upheaval, while 
deciding not to admit Cambodia as a member.

Australia, too, must learn to adapt diplomatically, while continuing to 
assert its central values. As Mr Downer has just demonstrated, we can 
encourage the countries in our region to pursue solutions in ways that 
differ from ours, without rolling over or accepting the  complicity of 
silence.

In New Delhi last week, Mr K.R. Narayan, a former diplomat and scholar, 
the first "untouchable" - the lowest in India's caste system - took 
office as President. For many in the modern world, today's real
"untouchables" are the generals and their ilk who rule without a mandate 
through public power and private terror and whose days are surely 
numbered. Australians with their strong Westminster traditions may grow 
impatient with the "ASEAN way" but we must learn to work diplomatically and
frankly with the countries whose regional fortunes we share. The claims 
to human rights, to justice, afree voice and a say in government is universal.

(28 July 1997, Editorial, The Age)

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        News and Information Dept.
        All Burma Students' Democratic Organisation (ABSDO) [Australia]
        Tel/Fax: 61+03+98132613

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