ASEAN Hit by Disunity

Posted by AsiaViews | Oct 8, 2017 | 0 |

THAILAND

The Bangkok Post

Oct 3, 2017

ASEAN is foundering over one of the world’s most important issues. It is beyond ironic that the regional group of 10 countries is split more than the United Nations. The plight and crisis of the Rohingya predictably have separated Myanmar from the ASEAN center and from public opinion in our region. But no one seemed to foresee that Malaysia would take a principled stand equally far away. ASEAN itself is so disunited it cannot even agree on a vanilla statement.

That is what triggered the Malaysian defection from ASEAN over the Rohingya problem. Unable or unwilling to come up with a unified stance, ASEAN stayed silent. The group’s current chairman, Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, then took it upon himself to speak for the group. He issued a statement he thought to be so bland and lacking in initiative he figured no one could complain.

That is where he was wrong. Mr Cayetano wrote and issued a statement that “expressed concern over the recent developments in Northern Rakhine State of Myanmar”. Malaysia was almost instantly out of the blocks to criticise Mr Cayetano and his words. Foreign Minister Anifah Aman’s own statement openly challenged the Philippine foreign secretary for a “misrepresentation of the reality of the situation”.

Mr Aman is not wrong. The ASEAN chairman’s attempt to appear concerned without actual action was unhelpful. The best anyone could say about it was exactly what Mr Aman did, in fact, say. It tried to gloss over the root causes of the Rohingya crisis by not mentioning Myanmar’s role. It shied away from even mentioning the lamentable role of the Myanmar army in burning out villages and indisputably resorting to terrible violence against Rohingya individuals and groups. Plus, of course, Mr Cayetano bent shamelessly to the Myanmar government’s insistence never to use the term “Rohingya”.

As Mr Aman stated, his Filipino counterpart broke ASEAN’s most important rule, which is acting by consensus. Mr Cayetano, the ASEAN chairman, by trying to make everyone happy with a statement without import, in fact made everyone unhappy. That includes Thailand and half a dozen other ASEAN members who have been forced to stay silent.

ASEAN is riven by the Rohingya crisis, including the violence of the tatmadaw, the lack of leadership from Aung San Suu Kyi and now, inevitably, the emergence of a serious terror group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, with foreign backing. The “consensus” view claimed by chairman Cayetano ignores the first two, Mr Aman the latter problem.

And while the United Nations, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have all responded to the humanitarian emergency, ASEAN is seen generally as a hand-wringing group.

This is a crisis with numerous causes, some recent and others going back decades. The main blame is directly upon the current Myanmar government, unwilling even to concede the need for speed with relief for half a million refugees. But there is plenty to go around.

Malaysia’s sudden and angry response to Manila’s action reduces ASEAN further. Thailand has finally decided to provide aid to Myanmar and Bangladesh. Otherwise it will simply “closely follow the situation”. Most other members are inclined to take no action at all, in case the divide continues to widen.

This is no way to run an important international group and command respect. ASEAN could, for example, be strongly united in providing aid to refugees. Indeed, it is in ASEAN’s interest to help the fleeing Rohingya. Preventing another mass exodus from descending on Thailand and its neighbors should be a key policy by ASEAN. The group appears not just hesitant but frozen, at a time when diplomatic leadership has become essential.

(https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1335491/asean-hit-by-disunity)

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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

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ASEAN Hit by Disunity