JakartaPost/AFP-Aug 2, 2022
Malaysia is set to lead a push for tougher action on Myanmar when ASEAN foreign ministers meet this week, as anger mounts at the junta for stonewalling crisis resolution efforts. The 10-country association, which has spearheaded so far fruitless diplomatic efforts to restore peace, condemned the junta’s execution of four prisoners last week. Ministers meeting in Phnom Penh from Wednesday are expected to lament the lack of progress on ASEAN’s “five-point consensus” plan, agreed to in April last year, which called for an immediate end to violence and dialogue between the junta and coup opponents. As well as voicing “deep concern” about recent developments and calling for restraint, the ministers will also demand “concrete actions to effectively and fully implement the Five-Point Consensus”, according to a draft communique. After more than a year of no progress on the plan, Malaysia will present a framework for its implementation, even as critics deride the ASEAN as a toothless talking shop. Within the bloc, frustrations are growing after the Myanmar junta went ahead with its first executions in decades despite personal pleas from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. “It shows the junta is making a mockery of the [consensus plan],”Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah wrote in a weekend newspaper article. Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan characterized the executions as a “grave setback” to ASEAN’s efforts to resolve the crisis, while Thailand’s foreign ministry spokesman Tanee Sangrat said the move “aggravates the vexing problems of Myanmar”. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2022/08/01/asean-foreign-ministers-to-push-for-tougher-action-on-myanmar.html.
