Friday, December 08, 2006 Yap: An interview By Januar Yap Meanwhile
SO this group of youngsters on one side was all agog about volunteering for the Asean summit. On the other, another pack, invariably effusing with energy, said they’re all set to march the streets to protest everything Asean.
It’s not the Red Sea parting, and I didn’t do my homework. I got stuck somewhere else with a book.
So I Googled Asean and found its secretariat’s statement after its ministerial meeting in Hanoi this month. Catching my attention was the Single Window customs clearance project, expectedly seen to improve customs administration in the region.
In its pilot stage yet, but the secretariat reported thus, “More alignment of practical measures and harmonization of regulations and standards took place to ease trading across the ten member countries of Asean and to reduce the cost of cross-border commercial transaction.”
In school before I wrote this, Ambassador Victoriano Lecaros arrived in a kind of homecoming. Before he delivered his message, he sat beside his former teacher when he was yet the little cub straddling on school grounds. “The essence of the organization s economic,” he said.
A few hours ago, before I sat to write this, I had a chance to pass a few quick questions to Dr. Sann Aung, in exile, a member of the Burmese parliament now based in Thailand.
A close ally of Nobel Prize winner Daw Aung Sann Suu Kyi, opposition leader in Burma, Dr. Sann is in Cebu with other members of the parliament to push the Burmese democratic movement agenda during the Asean summit.
Here’s part of it:
How do you assess the situation in Burma now?
In all aspects, the situation in Burma (economic, political health and education) is becoming worse. The military regime is very oppressive, arrogant and resisting to change. The human rights situation in Burma is very appalling. The abuses by the Burmese military are widespread and include rape, torture, execution and forced relocation.
They are trying to convene a national convention to lay down the constitution without the participation of Daw Aung Sann Suu Kyi and her political party the National League of Democracy, which scored a landslide victory in our country’s 1990 elections but the military regime ignored the results.
What brings you here?
I’m part of the Asian Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus delegation. Together with other parliamentarians from the Asean countries we are here to raise the situation in Burma to the Philippine government. We are grateful for the support given by various civil society groups here like Akbayan.
In Manila, we had an audience with Senate President Manuel Villar and House Speaker Jose de Venecia. They expressed concern over the slow pace of democracy in Burma and promised to raise the issue during the Asean Summit.
What is your message to the Asean leaders?
There are various ways the Asean can do to help the Burmese people and truly to become a caring and sharing community. The Asean leaders can use their neighborly influence on Myanmar’s military regime to move towards democratic change. It’s about time to end their policy of non-interference, towards the country, which is a member of the grouping.
Asean countries that are democratic, like the Philippines and Malaysia, can exert more pressure to the military regime. Asean should support the UN Security Council’s resolution on Burma and to work for the release of Daw Aung Sann Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
