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Wikipedia:
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated ASEAN, is a geo-political and economic organization of ten countries located in Southeast Asia, which was formed on 8 August 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Since then, membership has expanded to include Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.
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ASEAN has traditionally followed a charter policy of never publicly criticizing any of its member nations for egregious human-rights violations.
If you're an ASEAN member, you can microwave and eat babies and ASEAN will never publicly rebuke you.
And now, in fact, ASEAN is about to REWARD its most atrocity-loving, most corrupt, most oppressive totalitarian military dictatorship by offering it the chair of ASEAN in 2014.
ASEAN can go fuck itself. Eventually the world will cease to tolerate this kind of international criminal gang which protects genocidists.
I look foward to a future world whose media and diplomatic community routinely equates ASEAN with al-Qaeda or the murderous Mexican narco cartels.
If you say there's a difference between ASEAN and mass-murdering terrorists (other than expensive clothing), please Leave A Comment and explain it to me.
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Reuters (newswire UK)
Sunday 8 May 2011
ASEAN open to
giving Myanmar
chair in 2014
JAKARTA, INDONESIA (Reuters) -- Southeast Asian leaders have no objection to Myanmar's request to chair the 10-member ASEAN bloc in 2014, as long as it continues making progress toward democracy, Indonesia's president said Sunday after the group's latest summit.
"ASEAN leaders do not object in principle," Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at his closing news conference. "But Myanmar, which is a focus of world attention, is expected to continue progress on democracy so when it becomes chair it does not generate negative views."
A communique issued at the end of the two-day ASEAN leaders' summit in Jakarta said: "We considered the proposal of Myanmar that it would host the ASEAN summits in 2014, in view of its firm commitment to the principles of ASEAN."
It added that ASEAN leaders supported the "steady progress and political developments in Myanmar" after it held general elections and formed a new government in March, calling the ballot "successful."
A previous draft communique said ASEAN had already "consented to the proposal" to chair the bloc in 2014. The final draft, and Yudhoyono's comments, suggest a final decision will be made at a later date.
Myanmar held elections earlier this year to switch from military to civilian rule, leading the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to push the United States and Europe to drop sanctions against it.
But many observers dismissed the election as a sham that has kept the generals in power behind the scenes.
Any decision to allow Myanmar to chair ASEAN would provoke protests from Western governments and rights groups, and would complicate efforts by ASEAN to work more closely with the United States and the European Union.
Rights group Human Rights Watch sharply criticized ASEAN's apparent readiness to allow Myanmar's 2014 presidency.
"This is unfortunately a decision of political convenience over political principle, and indicates once again that human rights is not a priority for ASEAN," Phil Robertson, the HRW's Asia deputy director, told Reuters.
(Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu and Aditya Suharmoko; Editing by Andrew Marshall)
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Altsean Burma
(pro-democracy NGO in exile)
Thursday 12 May 2011
For Immediate Release
BURMA'S 100 DAYS OF PARLIAMENT:
MORE 'NAYS' THAN 'YEAS'
Canberra, Thursday: Australia's Foreign Minister, MPs, senior government officials, and foreign diplomats were today warned that Burma's political, economic, and
humanitarian crises persisted despite the convening of the Parliament. A video message from Burmese pro-democracy
leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and statements from a leading ASEAN legislator, an economist, and a female activist drove
the message home at a conference to mark 100 days since the convening of Burma's Parliament.
The event was held at the Australian National Parliament and hosted by the Australian Parliamentarians for Democracy in Burma, a cross-party group of Australian MPs. The group is co-convened by MP Laurie Ferguson, Senator Scott Ludlam, Senator Marise Payne, and MP Janelle Saffin.
In a video message to the conference, Burmese pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi highlighted the urgent need for
the release of political prisoners. She said that the release of political prisoners was an essential benchmark to measure the regime's progress toward democracy. "If
political prisoners are not released, then I think we can say that we shall need many, many more hundreds of days before we will see the light of democracy," Daw Suu said.
[Burma has more than 2,000 political prisoners including several imprisoned after the November 2010 elections].
Indonesian MP and ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus President Mrs Eva Kusuma Sundari said that under current conditions, there was little hope that significant change in Burma would come through parliamentary channels. "Instead,
as we experience in Indonesia, change is more likely to occur because people will be fed up with misrule and mismanagement."
Mrs Sundari warned that Burma's 2008 constitution that was modeled on Indonesia's discarded dwifungsi model was
designed to secure the military's control of national politics.
"It took the Indonesian democracy movement almost 30 years to convince the military to withdraw from politics. Let us do better now and not condemn Burma to yet another generation of military rule," she urged.
Sean Turnell, Associate Professor of Economics at Macquarie University in Sydney, said that there had been no change in Burma's economic situation despite the elections and the convening of the Parliament. He pointed out that the regime
published the national budget for the next two financial years before the Parliament convened. Such a move deprived the Parliament of its prerogative to debate the budget. As a result, the current year's budget, which allocates 51% to
military expenditure and only 3% to healthcare, was not subjected to parliamentary scrutiny.
"Surprisingly, the regime failed to send a signal to the world that 'we are open for business' by promoting reforms designed to give a semblance of normalcy and make foreign investment more attractive," said Mr Turnell. He pointed out that Burma's chronic economic woes would continue because of
the regime's irresponsible approach to the management of the economy.
Ms. K'Nyaw Paw, a female activist from Burma's Karen State, reminded the conference that despite the elections and the convening of the Parliament, Burma's military regime continued to commit widespread and systematic abuses against
the civilian population.
"The regime has forced over 1,200
villagers in Eastern Burma to work as porters for the military," she said. "Rape as a weapon of war continues with impunity in ethnic areas."
She urged Australia to increase its overall aid to Burma, and to channel it to vulnerable populations in Eastern Burma's conflict zones by financing cross-border relief programs.
ENDS
