LABUAN BAJO: South-east Asian nations are at a “crossroad”, a senior Indonesian minister warned Tuesday, as escalating violence in junta-controlled Myanmar loomed over a regional summit. Myanmar has been ravaged by deadly violence since a military coup deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s government more than two years ago and unleashed a bloody crackdown on dissent.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — long-decried by critics as a toothless talking shop — has led diplomatic attempts to resolve the crisis.
Those efforts have been fruitless, as the junta ignores international criticism and refuses to engage with its opponents, which include ousted lawmakers, anti-coup “People’s Defence Forces” and armed ethnic minority groups. An air strike on a village in a rebel stronghold last month that reportedly killed about 170 people sparked global condemnation and worsened the junta’s isolation. It also fuelled calls for ASEAN to take tougher action to end the violence or risk being sidelined.
“ASEAN is at a crossroad,” Mahfud MD, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for politics, legal and security, warned Tuesday, the first day of the summit. “Crisis after crisis is testing our strength as a community. And failure to address them would risk jeopardising our relevance,” he said according to a copy of his remarks, listing Myanmar among the emergencies facing the bloc.
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