ASEAN is sliding into irrelevance on Myanmar

EDITORIAL

The regional bloc is confronting Myanmar with a mixture of immobilism and wishful thinking, while other actors intervene more effectively – to the regime’s benefit.

This year’s chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Malaysia, has shown a puzzling optimism about Myanmar. On Wednesday last week, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he had seen “remarkable progress” in resolving the country’s conflict, adding that the junta and resistance forces are starting to engage in “indirect talks”.

The Malaysian PM’s words came the week after a regime airstrike on a school killed 22 children and two teachers in Sagaing Region. Following the 7.7-magnitude earthquake in central Myanmar on March 28, the junta announced a unilateral ceasefire to facilitate rescue and recovery efforts, but since then it has ramped up its campaign of airstrikes including in areas affected by the quake.