Asean Won’t Let Burma Troubles Slow Regional Integration

Gillian Wong/Associated Press Writer/Singapore
The Irrawaddy News
www.irrawaddy.org
January 21, 2008

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will not let the actions of its troubled member Burma hamper the group's regional integration efforts, a senior Singaporean official said on Monday.

"We should not and will not let the Myanmar [Burma] issue slow down the integration of our region," Second Minister for Foreign Affairs Raymond Lim told the Singapore Parliament.

Lim was responding to Singaporean parliamentarians' questions on why Asean leaders cancelled a scheduled address by UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari at the bloc's annual meeting in Singapore in November, after Burma had objected.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the chairman of Asean, had invited Gambari to address the summit about the progress made in his meetings with Burma’s junta. But Burma regarded the issue as a domestic affair, Lim said.

"Myanmar [Burma] wanted to deal with the UN directly, and did not want Asean to play any political role. Once Myanmar [Burma] took this position, Asean could not proceed" as it is a consensus-based organization, Lim said.

"It is obviously unsatisfactory that Myanmar [Burma] sees no role for an organization of which it is a member, and on an issue which affects us all. But this is not a matter of Asean's credibility," Lim said.

Lim also ruled out the possibility of expelling Burma from the regional bloc, saying it was in Asean's interests to keep the country as "a member of the family."

"I don't think that expelling Myanmar [Burma] from Asean is the solution," he said. "We still have channels of communication which hopefully can influence the situation in Myanmar [Burma]."

"What happens in Myanmar [Burma] affects the well-being of the rest of Southeast Asia. We do not want to see Myanmar [Burma] descend into chaos or implode."

During the summit, Asean leaders signed a landmark charter to promote free trade and human rights, formally turning the 40-year-old organization—often derided as a toothless talk shop—into a rules-based legal entity if ratified by all 10 members. It also adopted a blueprint to transform the region into a European Union-style economic bloc.