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The Times of India -- Dec. 11, 98
<bold>Myanmar still thorn in the side of ASEAN
</bold>
By Stephen Collinson
BANGKOK: ASEAN admitted Myanmar with high hopes that gentle
persuasion would spur political reform, but 18 months on the junta's
battle with Aung San Suu Kyi still threatens the group's
fragile unity.
Next week's summit of the Association of South East Asian
Nations
in Hanoi is the group's first major conference since the
agenda of
July's foreign minister's meeting with dialogue partners
in Manila
was hijacked by Myanmar's political turmoil.
ASEAN officials will be hoping to avoid a repeat of the
row which
erupted as National League for Democracy leader (NLD) Aung
San
Suu Kyi was locked in a roadside standoff with Myanmar
security
forces.
Her battle of wills provoked angry condemnation of the
junta from
some members and western partners, shattering ASEAN's
tradition
of conciliation and consensus.
The episode strained the fault- lines of the group's
sacred code of
non-interference in each other's affairs as Thailand
promoted
proposals for ``flexible engagement'' to allow members to
criticise
one another.
Thailand's plan has been watered down by ASEAN to
``enhanced
interaction,'' but observers say Myanmar is still one of
the group's
most divisive problems.
Diplomats say the junta is unlikely to be impressed by the
rationale
behind ``enhanced interaction,'' as explained in an
interview with
AFP by Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan.
``You are where you are, but you don't expect everybody to
endorse
everything that you do,'' Surin spelled out. ``We are what
we are, but
don't take us wrong that we are trying to take our own
direction,
walk our own way.''
Myanmar will be represented at the summit by Than Shwe,
senior
general of the junta. The meeting also sees the debut on
the
international stage of new Foreign Minister Win Aung,
appointed in a
cabinet reshuffle last month.
Win Aung honed his presentational skills facing down some
of the
junta's severest critics in a spell as ambassador to
London.
A protege of military intelligence chief Khin Nyunt, he is
regarded in
Yangon as better equipped to steer Myanmar through
sometimes
delicate ASEAN meetings than his rigid predecessor Ohn
Gyaw.
However, few observers believe he will tone down
Myanmar's
habitual fierce defence of sovereignty and defiance of
accusations of
human rights abuses. ``Though more able, these people are
selling
the same old product, and are still defending the same
old
dictatorship and its bankrupt policy,'' said one
Yangon-based
diplomat. Ministers tell visitors to Yangon they are happy
with
ASEAN membership so far.
The government was ``of the view that we could not stay
aloof, we
have to be in the mainstream of the international arena,''
Nyunt
Maung Shein, director-general of the foreign ministry's
political
department, told AFP. But diplomats say Myanmar is in
reality
dismayed that due to the Asian financial crisis,
investment links
with ASEAN have all but dried up. (AFP)