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Urgent motion
in Parliament on Monday to condemn the year-long extension of Aung San Suu
Ky’s house-arrest which raises the issue of propriety of Myanmar taking the
ASEAN Chair for 2006
Media Statement (2)
by Lim Kit Siang
(Parliament,
Friday):
I have today given notice to the
Speaker of Parliament, Tan Sri Ramli Ngah Talib, to move an urgent motion of
definite public importance on Monday to condemn the year-long extension of
the house arrest of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Burmese Opposition
Leader, Aung San Suu Kyo, which raised the issue of propriety of Myanmar
taking the ASEAN Chair for 2006.
In my notice
of motion to the Speaker, I said:
“The timing of ASSK’s house-arrest extension at the end of the Vientiane
ASEAN Summit is an open slap-in-the-face for the other ASEAN leaders and
governments, in utter
defiance and contempt of the call by the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting
in Pnomh Penh in June last year for her immediate and unconditional
release as well as the repeated promises by the Myanmese leaders to end
her incarceration since the Depayin Massacre on May 30 last year.
“It reinforces grave doubts about Myanmar’s commitment to
democratisation and national reconciliation and raises the question
whether Myanmar should be
allowed to take the
rotating ASEAN Chair for 2006, as it will be a great blow to ASEAN with
its adverse impact on its international image and standing and
undesirable economic consequences for the other ASEAN member nations in
the era of globalization.
“As
Malaysia currently assumes unprecedented international responsibilities as
the ‘triple’ Chair of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Organisation of
Islamic Conference (OIC), as well as ASEAN (taking over the ASEAN Chair
from Laos after the Vientiane ASEAN Summit), the Malaysian Parliament
should be in the forefront of ASEAN Parliaments in shaping regional and
international opinion by taking the first and earliest available
opportunity to address pressing international concerns on Myanmar,
including:
-
endorsing the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s call that
ASSK
and other political detainees must be included in the current spate of
prisoner releases authorized by the military junta;
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Genuine tripartite political dialogue involving the military junta, the
pro-democracy movement and the ethnic nationalities, as the crux of a
meaningful ‘Seven-step Roadmap to Democracy’ in Myanmar”
It has been
reported by the international press quoting sources that the ASEAN
countries “came close to issuing a critical
statement on the Burmese government’s treatment of detained pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi at their summit, but the plan was shot down by
Thailand”.
An Associated
Press report said:
“Senior
officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, which
includes Burma, drafted a statement expressing concern over the decision by
the country’s junta to extend Nobel laureate Suu Kyi’s house arrest, said
two diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity.
”hey said the statement, which was to have been issued Tuesday at the end of
the annual summit of Asean leaders in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, also
would have urged Burma’s military regime to stick to its pledges to move
toward democracy.
“The planned
statement, although stillborn, is a reflection of the deep frustration among
Southeast Asian countries with Burma’s junta, which has failed to fulfill
any of its pledges to restore democracy in the country or to free Suu Kyi,
who has been detained since May 2003.
”Many regional diplomats feel that Burma is tainting Asean’s reputation. The
Burma statement was drafted by senior diplomats of Asean’s 10 member
countries for approval of their leaders on Tuesday. However, it was
abandoned after Thai officials ‘expressed reservations’, the diplomats said.
As expected, Burma also opposed it…
”Senior diplomats of Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore who initiated
the move then made an alternative proposal—each government would issue a
separate statement criticizing Burma, but that plan was also not carried,
the diplomats said.
”At least one government—the Philippines—went as far as preparing a draft
statement, a copy of which was seen by Associated Press. It used strong
language in expressing concern about Suu Kyi’s continued detention and the
eroding credibility of Asean.
“Several diplomats
privately expressed disappointment over the reported extension of Suu Kyi’s
house arrest, saying they had tried to hold back on criticisms because of
Burma’s promise to democratize. But with promises coming to naught, there is
a feeling of betrayal among Asean countries, one of the diplomats said.”
Thailand’s Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra owes not only
the Thai people but the ASEAN community a full explanation as to why his
government had blocked a clear and strong statement of concern and censure
of Myanmar at the Vientiane ASEAN Summit at the backtracking by the Myanmar
military junta on democratisation and national reconciliation.
(3/12/2004)
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Lim Kit Siang,
Parliamentary Opposition Leader, MP for Ipoh Timur & DAP
Central Policy and Strategic Planning Commission
Chairman
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http://dapmalaysia.org