From Saifuddin Abdullah, Marzuki Darusman, Yanghee Lee, and Chris Sidoti
We welcome Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahims meeting with Myanmars National Unity Government (NUG) prime minister Mahn Win Khaing Thann yesterday.
The Asean chairs engagement with Myanmars legitimate political leadership has opened channels for the urgent delivery of humanitarian assistance following the devastating Sagaing earthquakes on March 28.
Further meetings between the Asean chair and the NUG must take place in the lead-up to the Asean Summit later this month.
Anwar also met with junta leader and alleged war criminal Min Aung Hlaing, in part to secure an extension of the juntas non-existent ceasefire. It was reported that Anwar was given an assurance that the ceasefire, which took effect on April 2, would hold.
But Mins lie was exposed before the meeting even ended. As UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Trk has confirmed, the juntas unremitting violence inflicted on civilians has continued unabated.
According to the NUG, junta airstrikes conducted since the earthquakes through to May 9 killed at least 334 civilians including 32 children, and wounded at least 408 civilians including 53 children.
In a horrific emblematic attack on May 12, the junta bombed a school in O Htein Twin village of Depayin Township in Sagaing region. Twenty-two children some as young as seven and two teachers were killed, while as many as 105 other civilians were wounded.
The juntas tactics and behaviour will not change. Since its failed power grab in 2021, it has also forcibly displaced more than 3.5 million people, plunged tens of millions more into poverty, and repeatedly exploited natural disasters for military advantage by weaponising aid and manipulating and obstructing humanitarian access.
Furthermore, it has subjected Asean to four years of humiliation by denying and blocking the five-point consensus (5PC) at every turn.
By meeting with Min, Anwar has forced an Asean reset on Myanmar. The redundant 5PC should be regarded as dead. Anwar must now champion a new Asean process on Myanmar, to be adopted at the Asean Summit in Kuala Lumpur. It could take the form of a new 5PC based on the following priorities and principles:
Asean will convene inclusive talks between the NUG, Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations (EROs) and other armed groups, including the junta, to secure an immediate end to all attacks, particularly airstrikes, and a total countrywide ceasefire supported and enforced by Asean and the UN Security Council and monitored by international observers.
Asean will coordinate with key stakeholders including the NUG, EROs, minority representatives, civil society and the junta, as well as with neighbouring countries and UN agencies, to support the urgent, impartial and unobstructed delivery of humanitarian and material assistance by all available means to all communities in need in Myanmar, to ensure that aid is not weaponised, and to secure scaled-up financial support to bolster recovery and reconstruction efforts and address the broader humanitarian crisis. Full and unimpeded access must be granted to humanitarian agencies and actors.
Asean will support all stakeholders to develop procedures for genuine and credible nationwide elections with independent international monitors, to take place once a legitimate and inclusive peace agreement has been secured and all fighting has stopped the only conditions in which a free and fair election is possible.
Asean will support all stakeholders in their negotiation of a new federal democratic constitution for Myanmar in accordance with the will and interests of the people and inclusive of all communities including minorities. As a core condition, the Myanmar military must be made permanently subordinate to a democratically elected civilian government and parliament.
Asean will support accountability for international crimes committed in Myanmar by all parties to the conflict and will cooperate with international and national courts and tribunals and accountability mechanisms to secure justice, including courts exercising universal jurisdiction. There can be no amnesty for international crimes and grave violations and abuses.
Anwar has the opportunity to secure Malaysias success as Asean chair and salvage Aseans credibility after years of failure on Myanmar. He has bet his reputation on it. The people of Myanmar have much more at stake.
Saifuddin Abdullah is a former foreign affairs minister while Marzuki Darusman, Yanghee Lee, and Chris Sidoti are former UN experts on Myanmar and founding members of the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar.
The views expressed are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
