Myanmar in ASEAN: Regional Cooperation Experience

4. Myanmar in ASEAN

MYANMAR IN ASEAN 83 4 Myanmar in ASEAN Myanmar was allowed to become an observer of the regional association at the 29th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) held in Jakarta in July 1996 and one month later, the country applied for full membership. At the special AMM in Kuala Lumpur on 31 May 1997, it was decided that Myanmar would be accepted as a fullfledged member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in July 1997, along with Cambodia and Laos. Despite protests from the United States and its allies to defer this decision on account of Myanmar’s alleged human rights violations, Myanmar was formally admitted at a special ceremony held in Subang Jaya, Malaysia, on 23 July 1997 and Myanmar took part fully inASEAN’s 30th anniversary celebrations. Laos was admitted at the same time as Myanmar, however, Cambodia’s admission was delayed due to political unrest in that country. The first ever meeting of the leaders of the ten Southeast Asian countries took place during this summit. This historic decision by ASEAN of admitting Myanmar and Laos was in line with the Bangkok Declaration of 1995, issued after the Fifth ASEAN Summit to which Myanmar’s then Prime Minister Senior General Than Shwe was invited by the host country for the first time. Myanmar’s process of joining ASEAN which was initiated by the country’s accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) at the 28th AMM in Brunei in July 1995 was most probably triggered by political considerations but there are both political and economic dimensions to the benefits accruing from Myanmar’s membership in ASEAN. Myanmar’s joining of ASEAN was not a smooth process. Even from inside ASEAN, voices of dissent against the admission of Myanmar into the regional association were heard. First, we should explore what were the reasons behind Myanmar’s joining ASEAN — from Myanmar’s perspective as well as that of ASEAN. 04 Myanmar Ch 4 16/12/04, 3:38 PM 83 84 MYANMAR IN ASEAN 4.1 WHY MYANMAR DECIDED TO JOIN ASEAN Soon after the formation of ASEAN in 1967 and also later on, Myanmar was approached by friends in ASEAN to join the regional association. However, at that time Myanmar was, as a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement, adhering to the five principles of peaceful co-existence and neutrality, and decided not to join ASEAN. Myanmar was and is still to date, against allowing any country to set up military bases in the country, or using its country as a base for military attacks on any other country. However, at that time, some ASEAN members were members of the military bloc — the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) — and some member countries had allowed foreign military bases on their land. These were the reasons why Myanmar decided not to participate in ASEAN at the outset. Despite this decision, the country was friendly to all countries, including those from Southeast Asia — in the midst of the Cold War. In 1995, Myanmar decided to join the regional association and attained observer status, along with Laos and Cambodia, in July 1996. According to Khin Ohn Thant (2001), there were at least two reasons which led to Burma’s decision to join ASEAN. First, towards at the end of the millennium, internal and external conditions had changed in the country. Domestically, Myanmar had expended large resources on internal security measures for decades, and now “the government had signed peace treaties with most of the rebels, who have laid down their arms. This now allows the Myanmar Government to devote more attention to external matters, including ASEAN” (p. 264). The second reason, suggested by Khin, was that, “in this age of globalization and regionalism, the country realizes that it cannot continue to isolate itself. It needs to identify with a sympathetic group, which will treat it as one of them, and a group that will not exploit Myanmar’s weak situation.” Most probably, the “ASEAN Way”, that is, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, and its consensus building and conflict resolution mechanisms, attracted Myanmar into the embrace of ASEAN. Myanmar’s critics have argued that the reasons behind Myanmar’s decision were both political and economic. Politically, as it was boycotted by the Western bloc led by the United States and the EU, the country needed international recognition and this led to the decision to join ASEAN. The economic reason was that the country needed development assistance and...