KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s demands to tackle the ongoing crisis in Myanmar were quite good but failed to achieve its intended objective, said Klang MP Charles Santiago.
Santiago, who is also Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) chairman, said the three demands laid out by Muhyiddin, which were in line with Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei’s respective demands during the recently concluded Asean leaders’ meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, were made clear to Myanmar’s military junta.
“In all fairness, the demands (by Muhyiddin) were good. However, I strongly believe that Asean did not get what it wanted from Myanmar in terms of immediate and necessary action,” he told The Vibes today.
By merely communicating Asean’s demands to the junta chief, Senior General Min Aung Hliang, instead of proposing strict action, Santiago said the five-point consensus reached during the summit could easily be translated as handing a lifeline and legitimacy to the junta regime in Myanmar.
“The five demands were firm and fair, but will the junta follow through on this?
“During the summit, Muhyiddin had told the international press ’we don’t care who’s causing it, we just stressed that the violence must stop’ and ’for him (Min), it’s the other side that’s causing the problems’.”
“This clearly shows how misunderstood Muhyiddin is on the present situation,” he said.
Santiago said many are failing to see that the violence is only coming from one side, that being the Myanmar military.
“On one side, you have an army equipped with arms, tanks and guns. On the other side, you have civilians with just pots and pans,” he said.
In an online press conference on “Analysing Asean’s Special Summit on Myanmar and its impact on Human Rights and Democracy” organised by APHR and Forum-Asia this morning, several activists, including Santiago, also voiced their concerns.
Forum-Asia programme manager Rachel Arinii said while civil societies have been strenuously calling for an arms embargo against Myanmar’s junta, Asean has yet to discuss the matter.
“Violence in Myanmar continues to escalate, and we cannot afford to wait for the Asean Summit in October (for this to be addressed),” she said.
Progressive Voice advisory board chairman Khin Ohmar opined that the Asean meet-up at the weekend fell short of the expectations of the Myanmar people.
“When leaders have a meeting without hearing the voices of civil society, there can be no real sustainable consensus to solve Myanmar’s crisis,” she said.
After the meeting on Saturday, Muhyiddin had expressed success in addressing the crisis.
He reportedly said Myanmar had accepted all the three proposals put forward by Malaysia in the meeting, which were:
- To de-escalate the situation on the ground, and stop the killing and violence against civilians;
- To release political detainees promptly and unconditionally; and,
- To allow the Asean chair and Asean secretary-general access into Myanmar, including meeting all parties concerned.
On February 1, Myanmar’s military junta overthrew the civilian government and declared a year-long state of emergency.
The coup triggered mass protests, met by deadly violence, resulting in hundreds of people killed since then. – The Vibes, April 26, 2021
