MALAYSIA ASKS ASEAN TO SET UP DEVELOPMENT FUND FOR MYANMAR

By D. Arul Rajoo

PHUKET, July 24 (Bernama) -- Malaysia said Thursday it was time for Asean to
engage directly with the Myanmar leadership and set up a development fund to
assist the country, instead of just asking it to free political prisoners and
embark on the path to democracy.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said the issue of Myanmar had
been raised time after time at regional meetings in the past one decade,
including by almost every participant at the gathering of 26 countries and the
European Union (EU) at the 16th Asean Regional Forum (ARF) here, but little
change had taken place there.

He suggested instead that the 10-member Asean take the initiative to engage
with the country's military leadership by either nominating an envoy, tasking a
country such as the current Asean chair Thailand, or setting up a working group
to come with an incentive package, combined with a road map towards democracy.

Citing the post-Cyclone Nargis efforts established by the United Nations,
Asean and the Myanmar government to help the 2.4 million victims of the disaster
since May 2008, Anifah said Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan could be
given the task.

"Indonesia and Singapore pointed out that Myanmar is the least developed
country in Asean. I told my counterparts we have to do something to help
Myanmar, such as giving aid to build infrastructure or for agriculture ... but
some felt that we should not be too ambitious," he said after attending the ARF
meeting, here.


This, he said, was better than continuing with sanctions or merely asking
the military junta to release democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and other
political prisoners, an effort futile so far.

According to him, Malaysia also emphasised that Asean needed to understand
the situation in Myanmar better and play a more prominent role in assisting the
country in its process of democratisation and economic development in line with
Malaysia's "prosper thy neighbour" policy.

Anifah said attaching conditions to aid offered to Myanmar would not help
the country, and pointed to the post-Cyclone Nargis reconstruction effort where
only US$100 million has been raised so far by the international community out of
the required US$691 million as the United States, the EU and Japan wanted Suu
Kyi to be released first.

Myanmar has become a sticky issue for Asean since it joined the grouping in
1997, especially with the continued detention of Suu Kyi and her ongoing trial
for "harbouring" an American while under house arrest.

Early this month, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon visited Myanmar but was
not allowed to meet Suu Kyi.

"Once development reaches the people, the Myanmar government would be in a
better position and more confident to face voters in the general election, as
well as address the issue of illegal immigrants and the Rohingya minorities,"
Anifah said.

He did not rule out the possibility of bringing up the proposal to set up
the fund at the 15th Asean Summit here in October.

-- BERNAMA