The latest developments in Burma, where 24 members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, are still in detention in the wake of anti-government protests by students, must be viewed with gravity by ASEAN members.
As Kyi Maung, vice chairman of the National League for Democracy, has said, if the students were sure the government wouldn’t fire on them, “there would be thousands coming into the streets” - which is a measure of the lack of support, credibility and legitimacy of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).
The students had taken to the streets last week after some of them were beaten by police during an argument with a restaurant owner. Troops have kept schools and universities closed for four days, preventing students from meeting at their usual gathering points.
During the week-long student protest, Aung San Suu Kyi had twice been placed under house arrest.
The decision by the Informal ASEAN Summit in Jakarta that Myanmar would be admitted into ASEAN simultaneously with Cambodia and Laos, although without a time-frame, had been welcomed by SLORC spokesmen after the meeting as a clear indication that ASEAN would admit Myanmar next year, as Cambodia and Laos are expected to be admitted at the ASEAN 30th Anniversary Summit in Kuala Lumpur next year.
The Informal ASEAN Summit seems to have sent the wrong signals to SLORC that it need not embark on any serious programme of democratisation and national reconciliation, and could resort to undemocratic measures against pro-democracy activists.
ASEAN leaders should convey their concern to SLORC about the latest developments in Burma, which had put the decision of the Informal ASEAN Summit to admit Myanmar into ASEAN simultaneously with Cambodia and Laos in a most unfavourable light.
The ASEAN Secretary-General Datuk Ajit Singh should visit Myanmar to give a first-hand report to ASEAN Governments and Parliaments on the latest political developments in Burma.
In this connection, ASEAN leaders should give serious thought to the editorial in the Bangkok Nation last Tuesday, under the heading “ASEAN'S GOOD INTENTION GONE ASTRAY”, which said it is “unfortunate as Asean now is perceived as a grouping dictated by authoritarian regimes in Southeast Asia.”
It said: “But Asean will have to pay a price for the inclusion of Burma. The Slorc-ruled Burma will undoubtedly be an embarrassment for the regional grouping with the ongoing human rights abuses there and the current pariah status the junta has within the international community.”
The editorial ended with this lament: “Sad to say, the direction Asean is now heading seems to be led by unregulated force. Goons with guns rule rather than the rule of law and respect for democracy.”
DAP proposes that a Malaysian Parliamentary mission be sent to Burma to report on the latest political developments and to make recommendations on the question of Myanmar’s applicaton for membership into ASEAN next year.
There should be a special debate in Parliament before the Government makes any decision to admit Myanmar into ASEAN so that MPs and Malaysian public opinion are allowed an opportunity to be heard on the issue - and I ask the Foreign Minister to give an undertaking that such as special Parliamentary debate would be held.
Recently, the former Deputy Prime Minister and UN Human Rights Commission Chairman, Tan Sri Musa Hitam, said that Malaysia should take a “stronger” stand on the human rights violations in Burma. The government should take heed of this advice, for ASEAN’s “constructive engagement” policy towards Burma should not be an excuse to close one’s eyes or to deny such violations.
A year ago, when in open defiance of international opinion and after grossly unfair trials, the Nigerian government of General Sani Abacha hanged Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists, Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth and was put on notice that it must undergo human rights reforms if it is to be return to the mainstream of international community.
Little has changed in Nigeria. In fact, Amnesty International has this report on Nigeria in the past year:
“One year on, little has changed in Nigeria. The authorities detain prisoners of conscience at will, even ignoring their own courts. Political prisoners face unfair trials from ‘special tribunals’ that can sentence them to death; they are denied access to lawyers, family and essential medical treatment.
“On 4 June this year Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, senior wife of Chief Moshood Abiola, was shot dead in a Lagos street. Many fear that her murderers were government agents - acting with or without the knowledge of their superiors. Despite public promises to do so, the government has failed to carry out a thorough and impartial investigation.
“Moshood Abiola himself remains in jail. Having won the presidential election of 1993 - annulled by General Abacha’s military government when it seized power - he has been detained on political charges (including treason) since June 1994. And one year after the executions of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight colleagues from MOSOP, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, a further 19 Ogoni activists are still pre-trial detention on identical charges. Most of them have been detained since mid-1994: they were only charged in September 1995.”
The UN Human Rights Committee, commenting on Nigeria in July 1996, was “deeply concerned by the high number of extrajudicial and summary executions, disappearances, cases of torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary arrest and detention by members of the … security forces and by the failure of the government to investigate fully these cases, to prosecute alleged offences, to punish those found guilty and provide conmpensation to the victims or their families. The resulting state of impunity encourages further violations”.
The Malaysian Government must remain firm to demand human rights reforms in Nigeria and to demand the expulsion of Nigeria from the Commonwealth if the military junta is not prepared to stop blatant and widespread violation of human rights in the country.
(12/12/96)