Singapore - For the last 11 years, the Association of South- East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been very lenient with Myanmar, despite scathing criticisms over its failure to push for democratic reforms in the military-ruled country. While the 10-member regional bloc may have played a key role in convincing Myanmar's skeptical leaders to open up to foreign relief efforts following Cyclone Nargis' destruction in May, ASEAN has yet to shed the kid-glove treatment of its notorious member.
Even with the humanitarian effort in Myanmar, formerly Burma, ASEAN treaded carefully and did not ram its way into the situation, coming in only three weeks after the storm devastated low-lying delta communities.
"Even in such a calamitous situation, ASEAN failed to act decisively," said Debbie Stothard, coordinator of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma, a non-governmental organization pushing for democratic reforms in Myanmar.
ASEAN has refused to exploit the humanitarian operations as an opportunity to pressure Myanmar's military junta into fast-tracking the implementation of democratic reforms.
In annual meetings starting Sunday in Singapore, foreign ministers are expected to urge the junta to "take bolder steps in what they are doing to move on the roadmap to democracy," according to a senior Philippine official.
The ministers will ask for the release of political detainees without singling out opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Officials stressed that the ASEAN-led international effort to help some 2.4 million of people displaced by Cyclone Nargis is purely a humanitarian mission and will not be tainted with politics.
Nargis pummelled Myanmar's central coastal region in early May, wrecking havoc on the rice-rich Irrawaddy Delta and the former capital Yangon, leaving about 140,000 people dead or missing.
A senior ASEAN diplomat said the regional grouping will not go further than issuing the "gentle reminder" for Myanmar to fulfill its promise to implement democratic reforms.
"It is clear and everyone agrees that it's a humanitarian issue, and it should not be mixed up with politics," said the diplomat, requesting anonymity.
ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, has been criticized by Western governments and human-rights groups for its failure to compel Myanmar to implement greater freedoms.
Prior to Nargis, Myanmar was blasted by the international community for violent crackdowns on pro-democracy protesters that resulted in the deaths of an undetermined number of protesters and imprisonment of hundreds of activists.
The ASEAN diplomat said that while the United States and Europe are free to raise political and human-rights issues relating to Myanmar again during a regional security forum later in the week, ASEAN will just take note of it.
"It will be counterproductive if we pressure the Myanmar junta," he said, as the likelihood would be more resistance to reforms.
"All the sanctions imposed by other countries have not worked in forcing Myanmar to implement democratic reforms."
ASEAN Director General Surin Pitsuwan agreed and noted that tying up aid to Myanmar's cyclone victims with political issues could generate resistance from the junta.
"We are addressing the emergency issue in front of us," Surin said. "If we complicate issues early on, we may have that space limited, and that will not be good for the victims and the people who need help."
The former Thai foreign minister said that ASEAN would have to be "creative" in tackling "thorny issues" with Myanmar.
"You have to be on alert that there are ways and means to address the same problems, but maybe not in the same way, not in the same manner as everyone would like to do," he said.
"We are leading a humanitarian mission there now. Other issues will have their own time, their own opportunity."
Members of the Humanitarian Task Force, which includes representatives from the United Nations and Myanmar bureaucrats, are ready to present to the foreign ministers their post-assessment report on the relief and rehabilitation efforts in Myanmar.
The UN is hoping that the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment will help generate some 480 million dollars in fresh emergency money over the next year in order to intensify rehabilitation efforts.
Stothard noted that Nargis has complicated the problems in Myanmar.
"There has to be reforms in governance so that the system will become more transparent, more accountable and less corrupt," she said.
Stothard warned ASEAN against kowtowing to the junta, which has turned the tragedy into a cash cow.
"There was widespread documentation that international aid for the victims of Nargis was being repacked and given to people as dole-outs of the generals," she said. "The junta also jacked up the estimated cost of rehabilitation to 11 billion dollars from the 4 billion dollars estimated by international agencies."
