A new era of the Asean-Burma family saga

When Dr Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary General of Asean, sets foot on Nayphidaw, 20 February, as the guest of Burmese government, it will mark a new beginning of Asean-Burma family saga which began unexpectedly on 7 July 1995.

That day Burmese ambassador Thi Thi Thun to Indonesia expressed his country's readiness to accede to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation as a precursor to become a member of Asean. It came at a time of great contention as the Asean members were locking horns with dialogue partners, especially the US and European Union, over the deteriorating political situation inside Burma. Three days later, Dawn Aung San Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest. That was the first time that Burma showed some diplomatic finesse, with her freedom, it helped to increase the Asean's bargaining position against the West. From the Rangoon's perspective, Burma was contributing to the regional consensus and strength.

Within weeks, Burma signed TAC in Brunei Darusalam at the end of July 1995 and joined the grouping in 1997. Indeed, for a potential new member with such a longstanding turbulent history, Burma was given a special treatment - a super fast-track - as it took only two years. Vietnam and Cambodia each waited nearly four years while Laos for six years to prepare for the admission. One key factor to embrace Burma quickly at the time was to counter growing China's influence - admittedly, it was unnecessary. At the 1998 Asean meeting in Hanoi, Burmese Foreign Minister U Min Ung told his colleagues that the reason why Burma joined the Asean was that it did not want to join the "other side". He did not mention the name but it was well understood as China.

The Asean leaders' decision to support the Burmese chair in 2014 at the Asean Summit in Bali last November helped to open up the country to the outside world. For 15 years since joining Asean, Burma was considered an albatross around the Asean's neck until the rapid transformation began less than six months ago. It took 28 years after the Asean's approach to Burma before it showed any interest to be part of the regional family.

Ironically, at present Burma is positioning itself far ahead of Asean with the overwhelming goodwill from the international community which used to shun the country. Most of the attractions come from the charismatic opposition leader, Dawn Aung San Suu Kyi. Since her release, her comments were zeroed on domestic issues concerning poverty eradication, healthcare, education, youth development, and environment protection. But in the past few weeks, she has made substantial comments on her country's business environments with a big dose of "wait and see" warnings about the lack of infrastructure and legal frameworks. During the meeting with the Asean Business Club last Tuesday, Suu Kyi also revealed for the first time of her "simple ambition" to see Burma further developed and hopefully overtaken some of the Asean members in the next 10 years. But she did not elaborate.

It is a tall order but is nonetheless attainable. To succeed and make progress exponentially, Burma must integrate with Asean and tap into the grouping's dynamism and abundant resource. Throughout its history, Burma has the unyielding consistency and tenacity unrivalled by other Asean members. Before Asean, Burma stayed non-aligned, isolated and very much stood by its own feet. Now it is changing because it wants to, at least for the time being. That explains why the Burmese leaders have never mentioned the Asean factors publicly that have brought about the current situation. The Asean Secretariat has to appeal the Burmese permanent representative in Jakarta consistently to secure Dr Surin's official visit - the first since the Asean leaders' decision to support Burma's chair. His trip follows an unending avalanche of high-level visits from the West kicked off by US State Secretary Hilary's historic trip.

No doubt, Burma has a lot of catching up to do in the Asean-related programs and activities contained in 667 action lines. During his five day visit, Dr Surin should sit down and work out long-term plans for Burma's future integration with Asean and preparing for the 2014 chair with the Burmese counterparts. Again, Suu Kyi's understandings and views of Asean will be parts and parcels of measures to plug into the grouping's ongoing dynamics. Therefore, she needs to come to terms with Asean including those nasty comments by some Asean leaders that belittled her and denied her access and supports over the past two decades. She and Asean have to make a new jump start - akin to what she did dialoguing with the Thein Sein administration last August.

The Surin-Suu Kyi scheduled meeting on 22 February is pivotal as it will mark a new beginning of Asean-Burma family. After the April by-election, she is expected to become an elected as a member of parliament, commenting and making suggestions on foreign policy and Asean affairs. Obviously, if she wishes, she can join many activities initiated by fellow Asean MPs with or without Asean frameworks. Surin must take this unique opportunity to listen to all Burmese stakeholders in Nayphidaw and Rangoon what are their expectations and how their aspirations can be fulfilled. Asean is ready to extend all forms of assistance including capacity-building for Burma, especially to the preparations for the 2014 chair. Burma skipped the chair in 2006 citing domestic constraints. Now all doors are open for full engagements.

Surin, whose five-year term ends this year, will also visit the Irrawaddy Delta that was hardest hit by the 2008 Nargis Cyclone. He used to quip once that he was baptized by the disaster. Having said that, he must be gratify to see that Burma recovered and has gradually joined the international community. Least we forget, it was the Asean initiative as well as his personal intervention that eventually convinced Burma to allow the flow of international aid and humanitarian assistance to help the victims and devastated areas. The turning point was at the pledging Asean-UN conference in June 2008 that demonstrated to the Burmese junta leaders that the international community was ready to help if certain conditions were met at the same time it also showed the Burmese people's readiness to receive outside assistance. The tripartite core group - Asean, Burma and international organisations - was the first undertaking that enabled influxes of huge amount of foreign aids, experts and nongovernmental representatives. In more ways than one, without Asean's lending hands, nobody knows what Burma would look like today granted the growing frustrations among the international community at that time against the regime's unyielding attitude to accept assistance from outside. In retrospect, Burma has a lot to thank Asean for lifting the veils of secrecy and opening up. Strange but true, such perception might not suit the sentiment in the highly nationalistic Nayphidaw as the Burmese leaders are very independent mind and seldom stressed external factors as reasons for domestic changes.

No wonder, at the January's foreign ministerial retreat in Siem Reap last month, Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin was surprised to hear suggestions from his colleagues that Burma should invite them all to his country. The most frequently asked question: where is Asean in all these developments? Without the invitation, each of them has to plan the trip separately which does not augur well with the Asean way. As a result, Nayphidaw has eventually agreed to host a special foreign ministerial retreat after the April election.

It is interesting to see how the Asean-Burma relations evolve now on. Before the reformation, the Burmese leaders have never credited Asean for whatever they did or maneuvered. Will it change? When the Asean foreign ministers met in Phuket in 2010 under the Thai chair, they warned Burma that otherwise the country changed, they would not defend Burma as they did before. In a way, Asean was considered a late comer of sort because during in past six months, almost all news headlines were dominated by visits of Western dignitaries and their plans of economic assistances.

Will Surin's visit serve as a bridge to integrate Burma and allow it to grow within the embrace of Asean? We will find out soon.