ASEAN's Role in Democratization of Myanmar

In an atmosphere filled with fear and unrest, military-controlled Myanmar finally completed its purported 'multiparty democratic elections' after more than two decades. Although almost the entire world has been criticizing the elections as unfair, the Myanmar military government is expected to proclaim to the entire world that Myanmar had accomplished its democratic elections with a high voter turnout.
Myanmar is a member of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). However, it is sad to point out that as a regional organization, ASEAN could only play an onlooker role in Myanmar's elections. Prior to the elections, ASEAN had proposed to send its observers to oversee the electoral process. Yet, the Myanmar military government, which obviously knew nothing about basic courtesy, flatly rejected the good intention of ASEAN with the reason that Myanmar had adequate experience about elections. In addition, the military government claimed that it would allow each of the embassies and UN agencies in Myanmar to send up to five representatives to observe the voting process at the polling stations. But at the end of the day, these representatives were blocked from visiting to the polling stations for security reason.
Treaty of Amity and Cooperation
ASEAN approved the membership of Myanmar in 1997. The decision was made out of the concern that in the face of the plight of being isolated by the Western countries, Myanmar might turn more and more to China. Furthermore, the Burmese military government had also announced earlier that it was ready to accept ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, demonstrating its wish to be on good terms with its neighboring countries.
After Myanmar officially became a member of ASEAN, the organization has consistently called on the country to conform to the rules and regulations of ASEAN and preserve the reputation of the organization. However, the Myanmar military government continues to go its own way and simply disregard the calls from ASEAN. For example, ASEAN has repeatedly urged the military regime to give proper treatment to the democratic icon of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, and hoped that the military regime would release her. But until today, Suu Kyi is still placed under house arrest. This is because the military regime has assumed that ASEAN needs Myanmar, which is abundant in natural resources, more than Myanmar needs ASEAN.
Fair Elections
For the elections this time, as usual, ASEAN released a statement to express its hope that the elections would be conducted in a fair and transparent manner. But what else can ASEAN do in addition to expressing its hope? Elections are part of the internal affairs of a country. At present, there is an unwritten rule among the 10-member states of ASEAN, namely the member states are not allowed to interfere into the internal affairs of other countries. Therefore, as long as ASEAN persists to 'abide by' this 'sacred' rule, it can do nothing even though it knows well that the elections were unfair.
While the entire world is condemning the elections held by the military regime, eventually ASEAN will still release a statement to welcome the accomplishment of the elections and express its hope that this will be the first step of the democratization of Myanmar.

Myanmar’s Parliament Approves Peace Committee To Mediate With Ethnic Groups

Myanmar's parliament on 1 September approved the formation of a "peace committee" to mediate with the ethnic groups which are engaged in armed conflict against government forces, according to Arakan MP Aye Maung.
He said the committee has been named the "Committee for Forever Stability and Peace in the Union of Myanmar."
Conflicts and Building Peace
Aye Maung, who is the chairman of the Rakhine National Development Party, said on 1 September that the plan to form such a committee was approved by the Upper House at a parliamentary meeting in Naypyidaw on 31 August.
It is unknown when the committee will be formed and whether it will include opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi who was proposed by Aye Maung at the parliamentary session.
In an open letter sent by Suu Kyi to President Thein Sein and the ethnic groups last month, Suu Kyi said that she is ready to become involved and use her influence to help end the conflicts and build peace in the nation.
Fighting for Autonomy
There are a dozen groups of ethnic insurgents that have been fighting for autonomy since Myanmar gained independence from Britain in 1949. Tensions have boiled over into bloody clashes in recent months, most notably between the Myanmar Army and the Kachin Independence Army, the Karen National Union and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

Restoration of Democracy in Myanmar

The multiparty democracy general elections in Myanmar have successfully been held. Voters in the secretive military-ruled nation of Myanmar cast their first ballots in two decades, as slim hopes for democratic reform faced an electoral system engineered to ensure that most power will remain in the hands of the junta and its political proxies. Approximately 29 million people contributed their votes in the elections in Myanmar on 7 November. But the question here has been raised whether it would really get democracy. Many believed that by holding the election in the country, Myanmar stepped towards change in the nation which has been under military dictatorships since 1962.

The voters have elected their representatives freely of their own accord. The election commission and subcommissions at various levels have carried out election processes in line with the election laws, rules and procedures and are announcing the number of votes got by an individual Hluttaw representative.

It is, however, learned that some political parties and foreign media are releasing their statements leveling accusations that there has been disagreement among the public over the election results due to the advance votes.

Landslide Victory for USDP
The pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has won Myanmar's elections after gaining 76.5 percent of seats across the three parliaments, according to the country's supreme election authority.

The results arrived 11 days after Burmese went to the polls for the first time in two decades, but come as little surprise: the USDP was the strongest contender by a stretch, and received the tacit support of the ruling junta, who choreographed election conditions that appeared to favor the party.

Trailing the USDP, which won 883 of the total 1,154 seats, is the National Unity Party (NUP), which came runner-up in the last polls. Also holding close ties to the ruling junta, the NUP won only 63 seats, the China-based People's Daily quoted the Election Commission (EC) as saying.
The next four parties all fall within the 'opposition' bracket, despite fears before the polls that any pro-democracy candidates would be altogether sidelined. However, the total amount of seats won by these parties makes up only nine percent of the total.

They are, in order: the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP), with 57 seats; the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) with 35 seats, and the National Democratic Force (NDF) and All Mon Region Democracy Party (AMRDP), each with 16 seats.

The presence of three ethnic-based parties in the top five are a symbolic victory for Myanmar's long-marginalised ethnic groups, although their potential clout in a post-election will likely be very limited.

The three parliaments -- the People's Parliament, the Nationalities Parliament and the Regions and States Parliament -- are set to convene within 90 days of the vote. A quarter of the seats for each had already been reserved for the military prior to the vote.

It is the winner, the USDP, which has been the target of much of the controversy that dogged the polls. A number of parties are weighing up the possibility of making a formal complaint to the EC about the USDP, but that is both expensive and dangerous, with complainants risking jail terms if unsuccessful.

However, Western countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, along with the administrations of the European Union and the United Nations, have joined in saying the junta's elections held on November 7 were neither free nor fair and had failed to meet even the lowest standards outlined by the international community for convening a national vote.

Aung San Suu Kyi Released
Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, freed from seven years of house arrest, told thousands of wildly cheering supporters on Sunday that she would continue to fight for human rights and the rule of law in the military-ruled nation. It was feared that her detention could be extended in view of the pending declaration of the full results of the elections held on November 7 under the new constitution drafted by the military regime. Suu Kyi has completed 15 years of her detention by the military regime since 1989, when she returned from the United Kingdom and won Myanmar’s (then Burma) first democratic elections.

India has broken its deafening silence on Myanmar and welcomed pro-democracy icon and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s release.

Relations With India
The Indian policy in Myanmar has swung from one extreme to another. Initially, India supported the pro-democracy forces led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Subsequently, alarmed by the Chinese inroads into Myanmar, India swung to the other extreme of total support to the military Junta. This meant maintaining a silence on the Junta's suppression of the pro-democracy forces and its arrest and detention of Suu Kyi and its machinations to ensure that she can never come to power.

The time has come for India to adopt a more nuanced political approach while continuing the present policy of economic support to the regime. The objective of the nuanced political approach should be to nudge the Junta to respond positively to Suu Kyi's moves for a national reconciliation and enter into a dialogue with the pro-democracy forces. Another objective should be to persuade the pro-democracy forces to avoid a confrontational situation which could add to the fears of the Junta regarding internal security and stability.

ASEAN's Role in Democratization of Myanmar

In an atmosphere filled with fear and unrest, military-controlled Myanmar finally completed its purported 'multiparty democratic elections' after more than two decades. Although almost the entire world has been criticizing the elections as unfair, the Myanmar military government is expected to proclaim to the entire world that Myanmar had accomplished its democratic elections with a high voter turnout.

Myanmar is a member of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). However, it is sad to point out that as a regional organization, ASEAN could only play an onlooker role in Myanmar's elections. Prior to the elections, ASEAN had proposed to send its observers to oversee the electoral process. Yet, the Myanmar military government, which obviously knew nothing about basic courtesy, flatly rejected the good intention of ASEAN with the reason that Myanmar had adequate experience about elections. In addition, the military government claimed that it would allow each of the embassies and UN agencies in Myanmar to send up to five representatives to observe the voting process at the polling stations. But at the end of the day, these representatives were blocked from visiting to the polling stations for security reason.

Treaty of Amity and Cooperation
ASEAN approved the membership of Myanmar in 1997. The decision was made out of the concern that in the face of the plight of being isolated by the Western countries, Myanmar might turn more and more to China. Furthermore, the Burmese military government had also announced earlier that it was ready to accept ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, demonstrating its wish to be on good terms with its neighboring countries.

After Myanmar officially became a member of ASEAN, the organization has consistently called on the country to conform to the rules and regulations of ASEAN and preserve the reputation of the organization. However, the Myanmar military government continues to go its own way and simply disregard the calls from ASEAN. For example, ASEAN has repeatedly urged the military regime to give proper treatment to the democratic icon of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, and hoped that the military regime would release her. But until today, Suu Kyi is still placed under house arrest. This is because the military regime has assumed that ASEAN needs Myanmar, which is abundant in natural resources, more than Myanmar needs ASEAN.

Fair Elections
For the elections this time, as usual, ASEAN released a statement to express its hope that the elections would be conducted in a fair and transparent manner. But what else can ASEAN do in addition to expressing its hope? Elections are part of the internal affairs of a country. At present, there is an unwritten rule among the 10-member states of ASEAN, namely the member states are not allowed to interfere into the internal affairs of other countries. Therefore, as long as ASEAN persists to 'abide by' this 'sacred' rule, it can do nothing even though it knows well that the elections were unfair.

While the entire world is condemning the elections held by the military regime, eventually ASEAN will still release a statement to welcome the accomplishment of the elections and express its hope that this will be the first step of the democratization of Myanmar.

New Myanmar Political Strategies

Recently, the Southeast Asia Study Program held the second annual seminar for the 2010 under the title of Myanmar's Political Strategies for 2010. The seminar was held at Room 301 of the Liberal Arts Building in Thammasat University, Tha Phrachan campus. The seminar was kicked off with the opening speech by Assoc Prof Chonlada Kophatta, acting director of the Southeast Asia Study Program. Other panelists were Wirat Niyomtham, director of the Myanmar Study Center of Naresuan University, Phonphimon Trichot, a researcher of Chulalongkorn University's Asia Study Institute and Dunlayaphak Pricharat, a lecturer of the Southeast Asia Study Program of Thammasat's Faculty of Liberal Arts.
Ideologies and Constitution
Wirat said the 2008 Constitution of Myanmar has been drafted for ten years. Its strong point is the plan to have a new election held and the charter also led to formations of several political parties. He regards the 2008 charter as the one that combined both strong and weak points so that the Myanmar military could remain in power. The 2008 charter was drafted based on three main thoughts, which are (a) the thinking about nationalism and history, (b) political lessons, and (c) the needs of the country' leaders.
The Myanmar Government always gave priority to the nationalism when drafting the charter. The context of the Myanmar constitution is always related to the issue of nationalism. For example, the charter mentioned the country's independence won by General Aung San. The charter also mentions unity of the country and said General Ne Win united the country. It also mentioned peace, saying General Than Shwe is the leader who brought about peace in the country.
Moreover, the Myanmar Government focused on the Buddhist society in the charter because the Government regarded that the Buddhist society could bring about peace. After Myanmar got its independence, the nationalism and the military had a very important role in the country.

Role of Army
The constitution of Myanmar also created the opponents of the nation in two groups -- internal and external enemies of the country. There are two main internal enemies of the nation:
1. Communism as an underground organization. Persons, who play key role in promoting Communism in Myanmar, are still alive.
2. Ethnic Minorities. Ethnic people adhere to their ethnic groups' ideology and enter politics to fight for their causes.
The constitution specified two types of external enemies - old and new dangers. The old danger was capitalism and the colonization by Japan, the United Kingdom and white Chinese people, who were backed by the US Central Intelligence Agency, and fascists or foreign troops. The new danger is the great Ayothaya or Thailand, which is regarded by Myanmar as posing threats to its natural resources. The Myanmar Government also regards the United States as its new strategic danger.
The Myanmar charter classified political lessons into old and new lessons. The old political lessons talked about the socialist democracy, which the Myanmar military admitted that the system was a failure as the leaders had ties with the black markets and there were widespread corruption. The new political lessons are related to the politics for the country and the people, based on the belief that this kind of politics will help the Union of Myanmar survive.
Finally, the charter includes articles related to the leaders. The charter classified leaders into two groups - good and bad leaders. Aung San Suu Kyi was classified as a bad leader, whose role helped the military become stronger because Suu Kyi was too stubborn and set too many conditions. Another bad leader was U Nu, who succeeded General Aung San and was regarded as the one who led to an establishment of pro-democracy movements.
Wirat said the 2008 Constitution followed two versions of charter - 1974 and 1993 constitutions. The 1974 charter had a main weak point for allowing the Government to use too harsh violence against the people. The 1993 charter empowered the military to lead elections and left the market mechanisms in the hands of the people while having the central Government control natural resource management.
Under the new charter, the politics is a multi-party system and the state is a union state and the society is Buddhism society. However, Buddhism is not the national religion but there are more Buddhists in the society than people of other faiths. And the military junta has transformed into the National Defense and Security Council (NDSC).
The Myanmar Parliament is a union-type Parliament with 664 seats. The parliamentarians have five-year term. There are two chambers - the People's Council and the Ethnic Council. The People's Council has 440 seats - 330 to be elected from all districts and 110 to be appointed by the military. The Ethnic Council has 224 seats - 64 representatives of states and 156 representatives appointed by the military.
The president is the Government's leader and all the power will come from the president. The president will have security advisors. The Government will be required to work under the same union ideologies -- 1. the union must not be divided, 2. the Government must create national unity, and 3. the country must have strong sovereignty. These ideologies were created to solve problems related to politicians and ethnic minority groups. Moreover, the country leaders must always adhere to Buddhism. When new cities are built, the leaders will always build pagodas there and each leader will have his own pagoda.

Ethnic Minority Groups Government
Phonphimon said the Myanmar troops raided Khokang Special Region and seized its capital, Luakai. Kokang is a region on the border with China. The Myanmar Government alleged that Khokang built up arms. Khokang used to be an area under communists' control but the region had a ceasefire with the Myanmar Government for over 20 years. The new constitution has an article, which states that there shall be one Army.
The constitution does not allow ethnic minority groups to have their own armies. Now, the Myanmar Government wants all armies to be loyal to the Myanmar Government but it is difficult to reach that goal in practice. But now, the Myanmar Government has reached agreements with certain ethnic minority groups because both sides agreed on their conditions and because no ethnic minority groups' armed forces could fight against the Myanmar Army. Most of ethnic minority groups in the North are waiting to hold negotiations with the Myanmar Government.
The economies of Khokang and Wa regions have prospered a lot. If they fail to reach an agreement with the Myanmar Government, they could cause serious problems in the future because the Wa Army is formidable and Wa State's geography makes it hard for the Myanmar troops to access the area while the Wa people are more familiar with the areas and know how to make use of the geography. However, the Myanmar Government now has enough money to buy weapons from both China and Russia. The Myanmar Government also receives support from the North Korea, making its army the second strongest army in Southeast Asia after Vietnam.
The Myanmar Government raided the Khokang region now because its army has become so strong that it no longer needs to compromise with any ethnic minority group. Besides, the provisions of the new charter empower the Myanmar Government to do so. Moreover, the Myanmar Government might also want to test reactions of China and might provide it a chance to establish ties with the United States.
The raid against Khokang affected all ethnic minority groups. Therefore, the ethnic groups had to get themselves prepared to face what may happen in the future. China was also affected by the incident because it lost face and was in an uneasy situation as some 200,000 residents of the Khokang region may flee from the Myanmar troops and cross the border into China. That scenario could cause burden on China and affect its economy because the border trade between Yunnan and Khokang made the Yunnan's economy grow much stronger.
To be able to survive, the ethnic minority groups must unite themselves into a union to set their common strategies. They will also have to set and play their role in the political arena. But the ethnic minority groups have a weak point. That is, they lack trust towards one another because the physical geography makes the minority groups stay apart. They failed to share common history, so they lack mutual trust and some incidents made them hate one another.
Secret Tunnels and Nuclear Weapon
Dunlayaphak said the Myanmar army has been developing itself to respond to various kinds of threats against the state. The threats included the pro-democracy movements, the rebellion by ethnic minority groups and interferences by western superpowers. All the threats prompted the Myanmar Army to grow from a small to medium and a large army with potential to go to war against a foreign country.
Myanmar gave priority to two military strategies. First, it changed its capital from Rangoon to Naypyidaw. Naypyidaw has replaced Rangoon as the war command center because Rangoon's location is not good for maintaining position during a war. And the Myanmar military attached importance to three forms of wars - the conventional warfare, in which the Government will recruit armed forces of minority groups to fight along side with the Myanmar Army, the subtle defensive or guerrilla warfare and the people's warfare.

Other Aspects
Myanmar's complicated networks of tunnels are located in Naypyidaw. The Myanmar Government built the secret tunnels to set up underground networks for suppressing the minority groups and for getting itself prepared to wage guerrilla warfare. It has been quite clear for sometime that the Myanmar Government has been building up nuclear weapons. But, the Myanmar Government also expressed its clear stand to develop nuclear technology for peace. But the Myanmar Government might express its stand for nuclear development for peace just to avoid confrontation with the superpowers who may step in to disarm Myanmar. As a result, it has not been clear so far as to whether Myanmar has already acquired nuclear weapons or not.
From another perspective, the rumors that Myanmar has already had nuclear weapons might be spread to defend itself from neighboring countries. Myanmar might want to use the rumors as military bargaining power against the neighboring countries as Myanmar came under much pressure from foreign countries. Anyway, the existence of the secret tunnels was confirmed with evidence.

Reviving US-Myanmar Relations

When President Obama came to power, the US Government has taken the initiative to revive its relationship with Myanmar (Burma). After the US Assistant Secretary of State for Asia and Pacific Affairs Campbell met Myanmar's Science and Technology Minister U Thant in New York, there is a possibility that President Obama might also meet with Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein in November when Obama attends the APEC Summit to be held in Singapore in November. Meanwhile, we note that the junta government of Myanmar has also allowed western diplomats to meet with Myanmar's opposition party leader Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss the imposition of sanctions on Myanmar.

Toward New Approach
The revival of US-Myanmar relationship is more than a symbol of the restoration of a new era of US policy on Myanmar. This new US-Myanmar relationship can have a far reaching impact on the establishment of a new order in Southeast Asia and the future development of Asia as a whole.

From former President George W. Bush to President Obama, in the formation of Asian policy, the US policy has always been focusing on maintaining US economic interest as well as to ensure a regional security balance to the advantage of the United States can be achieved in this part of the world.

Economic and Political Strategy Framework
The United States is very clear that the political and economic forces in East Asian countries, including China, Japan, South Korea and ASEAN as a group, are growing steadily. Such development is bound to have an impact on the new international economic order. As such the Obama administration is gradually developing a set of comprehensive East Asia and Pacific economic and political strategy framework with the ultimate aim to include the East Asian region into US-led Asia Pacific integration. The United States wants to use such a strategy to ensure that the US national interest and US influence in the East Asian region can be sustained. When US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attended the ASEAN Summit in Thailand, Hilary Clinton has already proclaimed in a high-profiled manner that 'The United States is back.' This is but a reflection of the concrete US Asian Pacific strategy that the United States is developing.

Myanmar is located at the gateway to Indo-Chinese peninsula, which is situated in an important strategic position. It is also adjacent to key ASEAN countries. The potential need of Myanmar for various types of infrastructure is extremely impressive. The potential consumer market for Myanmar's 57 million population can attract influx of businesses and enterprises from all countries in wanting to pour their investment in when the country is gradually opening up. Implicitly, there is also a tendency for Myanmar's economy to gradually emerging following the pattern of the economically success story of Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Myanmar also makes use of its potential economic conditions to develop closer political and economic cooperation with all ASEAN countries. It is also prepared to sign the ASEAN Charter of Human Rights in order to wipe the suspicion of the junta military government by the outside world.

Asia Pacific Strategy of US
For a long time, the United States cannot shake off its negative shadow about Myanmar when they think of the repressive human right record of the junta and the house arrest of Burmese freedom fight Aung San Suu Kyi. Therefore the relationship between the United States and Myanmar cannot be revived. But such delay in establishment diplomatic ties with Myanmar has affected the US enterprises that long have the intention to explore and develop the consumer market in Myanmar. As a matter of fact, faced with changing economic and political situation in Southeast Asia and Asia, the US government and businesses have long simmering with thought and proposal in wanting to revive the US ties with the present Myanmar Government.

If the junta Myanmar Government can move along the tide and gradually relax its political control on the movement of its political parties or to at least allow Aung San Suu Kyi to conditionally having some freedom to take part in political activities, we believe the US government will, based on the consideration of commercial interest, follow its 'Vietnam model' and relax its economic sanctions that have been imposed on the junta government of Myanmar for many years. This development will once again underscore the interest-led Asia Pacific strategy of the United States.

Malaysian businesses have long established certain degree of business operational base in Myanmar under the junta government's preferential trade policies. At present, Malaysia is one of the largest investors in Myanmar. Malaysia has already invested about US$1 billion in Myanmar including joint venture in offshore oil exploration, telecommunications and agriculture. Malaysia's investment in Myanmar exceeds US and European investors in Myanmar. We can anticipate that when the United States resumes diplomatic ties with Myanmar, US businesses will make massive inroad to Myanmar and thus catalyzing the development of a market economy in Myanmar. Such development should be to the advantage of Malaysian businesses that have already seized the trade opportunities and established their base in Myanmar earlier.

Improving Business System
However, when Myanmar resumes contacts with the United States and when US businesses begin to make inroads to Myanmar, the importance of Malaysia's economic contribution to Myanmar will relatively be reduced in the eyes of the Myanmar business sector. Such development might affect Malaysia's trading opportunities with Myanmar in the days to come.

There is a need for our Malaysian Government to do an in-depth assessment on impact of improved US-Myanmar ties on Malaysia. This is in addition to the fact that there are still many variable factors on how fast and how long the junta Myanmar's reform effort and its opening up policy can be sustained. In the past, a number of leading Malaysian business enterprises did suffer setback and resistance when they put in their money to invest in some key industries in Myanmar. This is another perspective Malaysia must include in its assessment of trade opportunities in Myanmar in the coming days.

Western Economic Sanctions
Faced with the ever-unpredictable situation in Myanmar, Malaysian Government should take full use of Malaysia's economic strength; and effectively integrate the private sector resources to intensify Malaysia's economic and trade ties with Myanmar using a variety of expedient means proactively and aggressively.

If Myanmar is able to gradually break away from the shackles of Western economic sanctions and gradually following the example of Vietnam in national development, we can predict that high speech development will happen to Myanmar. The main focus of economic development in Myanmar is on oil, fisheries, timber, and telecommunications. These fields are Malaysia's strength. The future Malaysia-Myanmar trade cooperation potential is not only great but also of mutual benefits.

Future Ahead
In this round of US action in trying to resume diplomatic ties with the junta Myanmar, both parties must treat such development carefully, especially on the side of the United States to avoid giving the junta an impression that the United States is attempting to control Myanmar.

However, overall, one cannot deny the fact that in this round of diplomatic exercise, the United States is undoubtedly the biggest winner. The improved US-Myanmar ties will also cast a long term and far reaching impact on the strategy situation in the East Asia Pacific region.

ASEAN Flexes Muscles To Free All Myanmar Political Prisoners

The Myanmar court has commuted by half the penalty for Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmar democratic icon and former leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD). The verdict on August 11, 2009 sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to three years in prison on the charge of violating the internal security law. The court has recently commuted it to one-and-a-half year, or 18 months, and changed the detention method from imprisonment to house arrest. For John Yettaw, an American who swam to Suu Kyi's residence, the court handed him a seven-year imprisonment for three charges. The court gave him three-year imprisonment for violating internal security law, another three years for illegal entry into Myanmar, and another one year for swimming in a place where swimming is prohibited. What have happened is a challenge for The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that is a group of countries in Southeast Asia. It tested ASEAN whether it has enough potential to convince Myanmar to restore solidarity among its people.

ASEAN Views on Court's Ruling
It is pleasing that two days after the court sentenced Suu Kyi and a 58-year-old American who swam across a lake to see Suu Kyi, on the late morning of the 12th of August, Thailand on the capacity of ASEAN chairman has issued a statement expressing disappointment over the Myanmar court's verdict. The statement also cites the demand of ASEAN foreign ministers that attended the 42nd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) and the 16th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in July 2009 in Phuket province that the Myanmar Government should immediately release all political prisoners, including Suu Kyi, so that those people could take part in the 2010 general elections.

The determined stance of Thailand under the leadership of the Aphisit Wetchachiwa government was a consequence of the fact that the foreign ministries of several countries in ASEAN and in Europe and the United States have expressed dissatisfaction about the unfairly tough penalties handed down to Suu Kyi and the American man by the Myanmar court and military junta. For this reason, the Aphisit government should consult leaders of other ASEAN countries on further actions that the organization should take to pressure the Myanmar military junta to abide by the ASEAN statement, by immediately releasing Suu Kyi and other political prisoners. Then, those people would be able to run in the 2010 general elections.

Throughout the past several years, Myanmar has been a country ruled by an absolute military dictatorship that limits people's rights and liberty. Politicians who were on the opposite side of those in power, and people who disagreed with the government have been killed, arrested and detained and tortured with several methods, particularly Suu Kyi has been held under house arrest.

Sanction Against Myanmar
Although the United States and European countries have imposed economic sanction against Myanmar to pressure the Myanmar junta to release and free Suu Kyi and restore democracy in Myanmar, the sanction has not influenced the Myanmar military junta to adjust its authoritarian policy implementation.

There have been crackdowns against those dissenting the Myanmar junta. The foreign media have been barred from covering the situation in Myanmar. One reason is that certain powerful countries in Asia have supported Myanmar. Another reason is that ASEAN, in which Myanmar is a member, dares not to do anything for fear that Myanmar would be dissatisfied if ASEAN meddled with its internal politics.

Action Against Myanmar Military Junta
It is time now to take serious action against the Myanmar military junta. ASEAN has 10 member countries that are Thailand, Vietnam, Lao, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, and Myanmar.

Although nine other countries (except Myanmar) has never handed the Myanmar junta an ultimatum, but from the fact that Thailand on the capacity of ASEAN chairman has issued the official statement based on its goodwill toward Myanmar people and the wish to see peace in Myanmar and to see the progress in national development that is a cooperation between member countries of ASEAN -- that would become ASEAN Union in the next six years, this should be the time for the beginning of a push to make the Myanmar military junta return freedom to Aung San Suu Kyi and let her prove herself in a free and fare general election next year. If such a push could be done, Thailand and ASEAN would win praise from the international community.