LAST Friday, on the 81st birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi, 134 former and current legislators from 11 countries wrote an open letter to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., this year’s Asean chair, calling on the regional bloc to demand that Myanmar release immediately and unconditionally the Nobel laureate and other political prisoners from detention.
Suu Kyi has been in military custody for nearly 20 years of her life. She was first arrested in July 1969, after she co-founded the National League of Democracy, or NLD, and was held for six years.
She was detained again from 2000 to 2002 for defying travel restrictions. From 2003 to 2010, she was in prison after a failed, junta-backed attempt to assassinate her.
In February 2021, she was arrested after the military ousted the duly elected government that she led. After holding her in solitary confinement for five years, she was reportedly placed under house detention last May.
Suu Kyi has been incommunicado since. Her son, Kim Aris, wants proof that she is still alive. “Moving her is not freeing her. She remains a hostage," Aris said.
The group of legislators said the open letter “reflects growing international concern and longstanding calls for an inclusive political resolution to the crisis in Myanmar, consistent with Asean’s Five-Point Consensus and the broader international commitment to democracy, human rights and accountability.”
For Asean, the prolonged imprisonment of the democratic icon has long been the elephant in the room. Her detention runs against the bloc’s fundamental principles of non-interference and consensus-based decision-making.
Myanmar’s military rulers have resisted pressure from Asean to set her free, knowing all too well her value as a bargaining chip.
But there could be a deeper reason. The generals’ view of Suu Kyi “has long been rooted in fear, resentment and contempt,” observes Nyein Chan Aye, a Myanmarese political analyst and former journalist. “They resent the public legitimacy they could never manufacture for themselves. They have never wanted only to detain her. They have wanted to break her politically.”
Asean has shown its displeasure with the government of Gen. Min Aung Hlaing by not inviting him to its summits and regional conferences.
Early this year, Hlaing tried to recast Myanmar’s image as the region’s problem child by holding elections for a parliament that would take over governance from the military.
The elections have been widely discredited as a sham. The rules were meant to favor the military’s proxy party, the Union and Solidarity Party (USDP). Other parties, including Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, were disbanded even before the first ballot was cast.
No one was surprised when the USDP won by a landslide, and Hlaing was proclaimed president.
So far, there are no indications that the “new” government would be channeling any serious effort to finally set Aung San Suu Kyi free.
Even before the Philippines took over the chairmanship of Asean, it had been hard at work rebuilding diplomatic bridges with Myanmar.
President Marcos has admitted it is not a walk in the park. “We are trying to find ways to move forward, because we have to admit that although the five points have been there, we have not been very successful in actually changing the situation,” Marcos said during the Asean summit in Vientiane two years ago. “We are trying to formulate new strategies.”
Any approach must be carefully calculated to stay within the principle of not intervening in the internal affairs of a member-state. The debate continues on how to manage the Myanmar issue. One faction favors a more flexible strategy in dealing with the Hlaing regime for the sake of regional stability. Another wants a much firmer stance in getting Hlaing to accept the peace deal.
Last May, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the transfer of Suu Kyi to house arrest was a positive sign that Myanmar was ready to take “vital steps in a sequence of confidence-building measures necessary for long-term national stability.”
Any formula for political change in Myanmar will not succeed if Aung San Suu Kyi is not included in the equation. This is the reality that everyone must accept.
Blurb/
The debate continues on how to manage the Myanmar issue. Any approach must be carefully calculated to stay within the Asean principle of not intervening in the internal affairs of a member-state.