This year’s Chairperson of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, has admitted that no progress has been made to end the civil strife which is plaguing Myanmar and repeated a plea for an end to the violence, including a recent airstrike which a rights group called an “apparent war crime.”
On the final day of their two-day summit in Labuan Bajo, Widodo informed his fellow ASEAN leaders that “I have to be honest. There has been no significant progress in the implementation of the five-point consensus.”
The Indonesian President was making reference to a peace plan drawn by the 10-nation bloc with Myanmar’s top General in 2021 that called for an immediate end to the violence and dialogue among contending parties to be brokered through an ASEAN special representative.
As a result of the military-led government in Myanmar’s refusal to carry out the plan, ASEAN leaders decided to bar the generals who run the nation from the summit meetings. The generals have protested ASEAN’s move, which they said drifted from the group’s foundational policy of non-intervention in each other’s domestic affairs and deciding by consensus.
For the second year, Myanmar’s top General was not invited to the summit. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing led the army in usurping power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, putting the country into a civil strife and becoming ASEAN’s gravest crisis since its establishment.
In what seemed as a ineffectual call, Widodo urged for unity, as he spoke with fellow heads of state in the bayside hotel conference room with the chair reserved for Myanmar’s leader empty.
After the leaders brought the summit to an end, Widodo and his Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, disclosed at a news conference that the bloc would continue to push for the peace plan’s enforcement and expand ASEAN’s engagement not just with military leaders but with various groups in Myanmar, hoping the military-led government would do the same.
“We will try again and again. We are still united and strong in seeing the urgency of the five-point consensus.”
Retno Marsudi
ASEAN has come under international pressure to take tougher steps to address the crisis in Myanmar.
However, ASEAN members seem to be divided, with some recommending an easing of punitive actions aimed at isolating Myanmar’s Generals and allowing its top diplomat and officials back to attend the summit meetings.
Anwar Ibrahim Voices Frustrations
Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia publicly voiced his frustrations. He said that approximately 200,000 people have migrated to Malaysia to escape the chaos in Myanmar.
In videotaped remarks that he posted on his Twitter account, Anwar informed fellow leaders on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, that “ASEAN has not been able to resolve most problems, contentious ones. We are stuck with the principle of non-intervention.”
“Yes, there is non-interference, but we will have to then have a new vision that could give us some flexibility in order to navigate and maneuver the way forward.”
Anwar Ibrahim
Besides from the crisis in Myanmar, the territorial disputes in the South China Sea which involve China, ASEAN members; Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, along with Taiwan, were prominent in the summit agenda.
In a post-summit communique released by Widodo on behalf of the ASEAN leaders, they echoed a call for self-restraint in the disputed South China Sea to prevent miscalculations and confrontations, repeating language used in previous ASEAN statements, which criticized China’s aggressive actions without naming it in an indication of Beijing’s influence.
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