Southeast Asian leaders urged Myanmar’s isolated military government to hold free and fair elections later this year and yesterday pledged to enhance economic cooperation among themselves as they ended a regional summit.
“The elections should be free and democratic with the participation of all parties,” said Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who chaired the 16th annual ASEAN summit.
ASEAN leaders did not issue a formal statement about Myanmar, but Dung stated the organization’s position during a news conference after the summit.
Myanmar’s military junta plans to call elections sometime this year, but under the election laws, detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is forbidden from participating. Her party, the National League for Democracy, is boycotting the polls — the first in two decades, potentially undermining the credibility of the outcome.
The opposition won the 1990 elections, but the military refused to allow it to take power and has since tightly controlled political expression, jailing political activists — including Aung San Suu Kyi for 14 of the last 20 years — and quelling mass protests.
Speaking on the sidelines of the summit yesterday morning, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said it was important for Myanmar to make the transition to democracy.
“We want very much to see an election that is going to obtain international recognition and credibility,” he said.
Leaders from the 10 ASEAN nations represent widely diverging political systems — ranging from democracies to communism to a military junta — and generally refrain from commenting on one another’s political affairs.
Representing his single-party communist state, Dung recently visited Myanmar to promote Vietnamese trade and investment there. He said that he conveyed ASEAN’s position on the elections to Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein at that time.
“ASEAN countries reaffirm their continued support to Myanmar in its active regional and international integration,” Dung said yesterday, when asked about Myanmar’s election plans. “We are ready to support Myanmar if requested, under the spirit of the ASEAN charter.”
Other leaders at the summit said that they needed to engage Myanmar, not isolate it.
“We are not in a position to punish Myanmar,” Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo (楊榮文) said. “If China and India remain engaged with Myanmar, then we have to.”
The summit took place amid an escalating political crisis in Thailand — including a brief occupation of parliament by “Red Shirt” protesters — that forced Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to declare a state of emergency and cancel his trip to Hanoi.
Dung made no reference to Thailand’s troubles during his post-summit news conference.
Dung said the ASEAN leaders had agreed to intensify their economic cooperation, with the goal of establishing a European-style economic community by 2015.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel