EDITORIAL - Stepping up the pressure

Last month the Association of Southeast Nations surprised the world by demanding the release of Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. It was a notable departure from ASEAN’s policy of non-intervention in the internal affairs of member states. The departure from tradition, however, has failed to move the junta in Yangon, which had earlier claimed the Nobel laureate was being held in seclusion for her own protection.

A band of thugs widely believed to have been unleashed by the junta had attacked Suu Kyi and her convoy as she was touring northern Myanmar last May 30. Government troops moved in and brought her to a prison notorious for inhumane treatment of detainees. Many of her followers have since been rounded up, reportedly tortured and kept in various prisons.

It was just the latest atrocity in the junta’s long-running effort to crush the democracy movement spearheaded by Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy. What made ASEAN speak up this time? Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad gave the answer. Himself an authoritarian leader who loves to bash the West, Mahathir did not quite criticize strong-arm rule in Myanmar. Instead he explained that ASEAN was suffering before the international community as a result of the junta’s intransigence.

Mahathir, who has said often enough that Western-style democracy does not work in Asia, went one step further, warning last week that Myanmar might lose its membership in ASEAN if the junta continued to ignore the global outcry. This would be a last resort for ASEAN, Mahathir emphasized. But ASEAN should take the cue to step up the pressure on the Burmese junta to free Suu Kyi.

ASEAN had ignored international opposition and gambled on Myanmar, hoping that a policy of engagement would speed up reforms in that country. Since joining ASEAN several years ago, however, the junta has resisted efforts to open up Myanmar, even if it meant economic stagnation for the country. Myanmar has used its membership in ASEAN to deodorize a regime whose brutality should have no place in the civilized world. How long will ASEAN allow itself to be used this way?