KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to adopt a common stance on issues involving the countries’ rights and interests in the South China Sea dispute.
In an interview with the Philippines’ ABS-CBN, Anwar said tensions will only increase if Asean nations do not first take a “common position” before they attempt to engage with China on territorial issues.
“Let us first start with… getting a consensus within Asean and take a position (on) the Chinese to suggest that these are our concerns.
“It is not an easy resolution (to achieve), but we must secure some sort of basic understanding among Asean members vis-a-vis China.
“I think this would be the best route to achieve an amicable solution to this (territorial disputes),” he said in the interview. Anwar was on an official visit to the Philippines on March 1 and 2.
On January 25, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said that the ministry has placed its assets off the coast of Miri, Sarawak as part of efforts to prevent any foreign party from exercising the “doctrine of estoppel”.
In recent years, China has been enforcing its “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea, claiming the waters between the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam by showcasing its military might.
It has also reclaimed islands where it houses its navy and air force assets and staked claim to parts of the sea that are under dispute.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) tribunal on July 12, 2016 had ruled that China’s claim of historic rights over the maritime areas, as opposed to land territories and territorial waters, inside the “nine-dash line” has no lawful effect if it exceeds what is entitled to under the Unclos.
However, China ignored this ruling and continued to assert its presence through naval vessels.
There have also been reports alleging threats by Chinese military vessels against fishermen of Asean countries for operating in territorial waters that rightfully belong to the respective nations.
On Myanmar
Meanwhile, Anwar told ABS-CBN that while Malaysia has managed to maintain a “sort of reasonable, calm attitude” with other Asean members, Myanmar, with its conflict and atrocities against ethnic minorities, is the exception to this rule.
“Four decades of constructive engagement (with Myanmar) have not been meaningful. People are still being killed, hundreds of thousands are leaving or forced to leave their villages (while their) homes are burned.
“I have appealed to Asean friends to say that look, we have to be tougher. My senior partners will have to engage more effectively and probably be more assertive as well as engage with the (Myanmar military) forces if necessary,” he said.
Previously, Anwar had recommended that Asean “carve out” Myanmar as a member state for the time being, seeing as how issues in the country have impacted other Asean member states.
Due to the unrest and conflict, many Rohingyas and other persecuted ethnicities fled the nation into neighbouring countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Bangladesh.
A military coup in 2021 has seen more than 2,300 people killed and thousands arrested, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a local civil society group monitoring human rights violations.
The coup d’état occurred the day before the Myanmar Parliament was due to swear in the members elected in the 2020 election, thereby preventing this from happening. – The Vibes, March 5, 2023
