Activists condemn Asean on Burma deal

"The Asean persisted in admitting Burma despite strong opposition from civil society groups in 1997", said Charm Tong of the Shan Women's Action Network during a press conference held in Singapore Tuesday.

"ASEAN is shameful because it washes its hands off Burma, and passed on the burden of dealing with Burma to the UN", she said. 

The Burma activist said that the recent policies and actions of the Association are a clear indication of the failure of the ASEAN Way. The Burmese military junta has slapped the face of ASEAN during this Summit by simply insisting that the political turmoil in the country is an internal matter, and preventing a dialogue between ASEAN leaders and the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari.

Representatives of Southeast Asian civil society groups also expressed their disappointment about the human rights elements in the ASEAN Charter. Rafendi Djamin of the Indonesian Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) argued that "ASEAN remains non-committal to human rights being an overarching principle of the Charter." Djamin also commented that elements in international human rights law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are absent in the ASEAN Charter.

In addition, Djamin also expressed his pessimism regarding the creation of the ASEAN Human Rights Body. "From what we have seen in the Charter, we cannot really expect that this human rights body will have a protection function."

The disappointment about the Charter prompted civil society groups to launch the ASEAN People's Charter campaign. Previously, Singaporean Foreign Minister, George Yeo, was quoted as saying that "this [the ASEAN Charter] is a government agreement, but there should be parallel activities among parliamentarians, CSOs, students, graduates, think-tanks, and so on".

Reacting to the aforementioned comment, Sinapan Samydorai of the Singapore based Think-Centre, argued that civil society must not be relegated to organizing parallel activities outside of formal ASEAN processes, but rather should be an integral part of ASEAN processes. "If ASEAN governments act against the wishes of the people, refusing to listen to the voices of the people, will ASEAN be legitimate in the eyes of the people?" stated Samydorai.

The Nation