JakartaPost/Reuters-Feb 2
The government plans to send a top general to Myanmar to talk to its junta leaders in the hope of showing Myanmar’s military rulers how Indonesia made a successful transition to democracy, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said on Wednesday. Indonesia takes on the chairmanship of ASEAN this year and with it the responsibility of trying to resolve the region’s perennial problem of the suppression of democracy in fellow member Myanmar. “This is a matter of approach. We have the experience, here in Indonesia, the situation was the same,” the President told Reuters in an interview in the State Palace. “This experience can be addressed, how Indonesia began its democracy.” Indonesia, now the world’s third-largest democracy, was ruled by military leader Suharto for more than three decades before he stepped down amid mass protests and an economic crisis in 1998. The military took over in Myanmar in 1962, isolating the country and suppressing dissent for decades until a tentative opening up began in 2011. But its experiment with democracy, which included elections swept by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, came to end two years ago when the military ousted Suu Kyi’s government, re-imposed strict military rule and crushed protests. With Myanmar again drawing Western condemnation and sanctions, ASEAN came up with a five-point plan for it, including an end to violence, dialogue, humanitarian assistance and a visit by an ASEAN envoy to all sides. But Myanmar’s generals, while paying lip service to the ASEAN effort, have shown no inclination to implement it, and previous ASEAN envoys have achieved little. Jokowi, speaking on the second anniversary of Myanmar’s 2021 coup, said he was committed to the plan but added that ASEAN would “not be held hostage” to the Myanmar conflict and if there was no progress it would “act decisively”. He did not elaborate on any action. ‘Epicenter of growth’ Jokowi said he did not rule out traveling to Myanmar himself but acknowledged that dialogue would likely be “easier” between officials from similar backgrounds. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2023/02/02/govt-to-send-general-to-myanmar-to-highlight-transition.html.
