Civil-society leaders slam Asean govts over snub

They accused the governments of poor treatment and disrespect by rejecting five of their 10 representatives from an informal meeting with the leaders and "gagging" five others who were allowed to attend.

Three of those allowed to attend - Sawart Pramoonsilp from Thailand, Yuyun Wahyuningrum from Indonesia and Moon Hui Tah from Malaysia - walked out of the "interface" meeting in protest to show solidarity with their colleagues from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines and Singapore who could not attend.

"We feel strongly that the rejection of our democratically selected representatives is a rejection of both civil society and the democratic process," the group said in a statement released yesterday.

The activists were informed by the Foreign Ministry shortly before midnight on Thursday that the five would not be allowed at the meeting, according to the statement. Those who could attend were told to be ready to be picked up at 7am yesterday, nearly five hours before the scheduled meeting around noon.

The civil-society groups said the latest move by certain governments of Asean was "fundamentally undermining the spirit and content" of the Asean Charter that was approved and became effective since last December. The charter promotes the idea of a people-centred Asean.

"We are deeply disappointed at the irresponsibility and apparent irrationality of the governments' position," the statement said. "We plead with these leaders to stop trying to kill the spirit of an Asean community. Such moves not only hurt the development of the region but also the credibility of individual member states and Asean as a whole." Yesterday's informal meeting, lasting about 30 minutes, went ahead as planned around noon at the Dusit Thani Hua Hin Hotel in Phetchaburi's Cha-am district. Government leaders met with civil-society representatives from Singapore, Burma, Brunei and Vietnam. Singapore and Burma selected substitutes for the activists from the Asean people's forum who were rejected.