Big brother, where are you?

It had to take no less than the Chief Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court for the faint Burmese voices to get the attention of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) as if CNN, BBC, Fox News and the wires combined were not enough for their butts to move at least an inch. Chief Justice Reynato Puno said harshly of the Asean over complacency and seeming lack of concern over what Myanmar has gone through at this point after Cyclone Nargis swept at least 100,000 dead, 60,000 missing and left homeless over a million families from the southwest and adjoining southeast of the region. 

Ironically, India (a non-Asean member) launched "Operation Sahayata" sending in quickly air and naval transports after India's Meteorological Department confirmed of Nargis' exit to send relief goods and medical teams.  Of course, Asean could always alibi that India was a close neighbor so that explains the logic why India arrive at the scene first.   

May 7, Asean can probably brag now that someone from the 10-member-nation finally came to the rescue. But hold your horses. The supplies that were dispatched to Myanmar were not at all from the Asean. They were from the Thai Red Cross and therefore could not be counted from the Asean.           

May 8 (five days after the cyclone), some 20,000 miles away from the devastation, another work of mercy arrived but not from a neighbor close by not from the Asean but a neighbor from "far away land." Italy expedited $800,000 worth of disaster-relief supplies in the form of 30 tons of emergency equipment, generators, stretchers, first-aid provisions and water purifiers in a flight organized by the UN World Food Program. Italy was the first from the western hemisphere to arrive after the Nargis onslaught.   

Other early comers were Malaysia, the United States and the United Kingdom with a combined aid of over US$50 million all came in a week after the tragedy. May 19, two weeks after the disaster (take note, two weeks) Asean help finally arrived! And you would not want to know the scale of help the Asean has – 270 people! That's right folks. And according to a CNN report, their role is "to help with the medical needs of the displaced population" or they are there to serve more than a million people starving and without water and shelter! Beat that!

Would you know how much the Asean spends for its annual youth junket? Over a million pesos per delegate! My brother, who was among the lucky few to join the Asean tour late last year, said of the grandiose and luxury of the program – the shopping, the resto-hopping plus the lush stops in key cities. There were more than 300 "youth ambassadors" in that program from the Asean region and yet the organization only sends in 270 people for humanitarian efforts! 

It's really disappointing! The Asean is not just a community of countries cooperating for their economic or trade interest, it is also supposed to act as its "big brother" during emergencies. And I think when Puno decried Asean's lack of regional mechanism to deal with such contingencies he was probably unaware that such mechanisms were already in place eons ago!

When I checked their website under "ASEAN Cooperation on Disaster Management" it says: The institutional mechanism (in the form of experts group) has existed since the '70s but was only strengthened towards 2003 with the elevation of the experts group into a full-fledged committee."  Hmmm…all the while I thought that "lip service syndrome" is endemic only to politicians.     

Aside slow response, another big let down is why it only offered a little when it can do so much. The Asean passed the blamed to Myanmar's military-ruled government for its cold and close policy on foreign assistance which is another alibi that they have to concoct to avoid the flak of the international community.

Does anyone know Avaaz.org? I didn't know a hair about them until I bumped on their website. Avaaz.org is an international civic organization that promotes activism on issues such as climate change, human rights, and religious conflicts. The organization operates in thirteen languages, and claims more than three million members from every country in the world.

For an organization bereft of influence, machinery of government, it makes you think why it did the unthinkable – Avaaz has raised over US$2 million for relief efforts in Burma, through over 25,062 individual donations. They have entrusted delivery and dissemination of the aid to the Burmese monks, bypassing the military junta. This unique approach has proved to be very successful. As of May 2004, Avaaz confirms that US$550,000 was delivered to the religious establishment and another US$1,000,000 is en-route.

Thinking of the Asean now make me sicks, achooo!

Send emails to [email protected]