Friday, September 28, 2007 Editorial: What now, Asean?
IN THE Philippines, whenever oil cartels in the past ordained an increase in fuel prices, the worst case scenarios marking opposition to it were in the form of street rallies and strikes mounted by the transportation industry.
These were largely ineffective because it meant loss of income for operators, drivers and for those who could not report for work to earn their daily bread, hence normalcy returned in a couple of days. It even came to pass that subsequent increases no longer moved the general public to protest.
But over in Burma (Myanmar), after decades of repression and economic hardships, the increase in fuel prices some weeks ago proved to be the last straw. Despite the last truly massive show of protest against the military junta in 1988 in which some 3,000 protesters were gunned down in the streets of the capital city, Rangoon, the Burmese people are back in the streets in massive demonstrations involving up thousands of rallyists led by monks from various monasteries.
For several days the military junta hesitated to quell the civic uprising by armed force. This only served to embolden the protesters which subsequently swelled to an estimated one hundred thousand, rattling the government to the point of calling out the military which fired shots into the air. At last count one bloodied monk was seen being carried by companions and arrest made.
The next few days are crucial. Will there be a reprise of bloody 1988? Foreign governments have been asking the military rulers of Burma to go easy on the demonstrators and to start democratic reforms as the key to a peaceful return to normalcy.
The other members of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) who have been handling the Burmese problem with kid gloves so as not to antagonize the regime, may have reached the point of forcing the issue.
Hopefully, there will not be another 1998, otherwise the other nine members, the Philippines among them, may be forced to take drastic steps towards a final solution to the problem. What has been holding them back all this time is the common policy of non-interference in each other's internal problems.
The future of Asean is at the crossroads as a result of the development in Burma. No one is talking about military action, of course, as the solution. The next best thing is to expel Burma from Asean and let the United Nations handle the situation as best it can.
