A Regional Dilemma: What Role Can the Southeastern Asian Nations Play in Myanmar’s Affairs?

With the never-ending unrest (as seen in the image to the left) in Myanmar as I have mentioned in my previous post, the international community’s attempt to calm the matter was through sanctions. Its goal is to deprive the military junta of any foreign exchange earnings, in hopes of impairing its economy. However, these sanctions have not been very effective (pictured below) because not all of the nations uphold the sanctions. Some of these countries are those from the Southeast Asian region. Countries such as China and Singapore are still trading with the junta and fueling it with military equipments. Thus, this has inspired me to explore the blogsphere to see what others thought on the matter of Southeastern nations supporting the military junta. In my search, I found two well-developed blogs in Blogger. The first blog post, “State Terrorism, Agonies of Myanmar & Regional Stability (2-3)”, was authored by Mg Yin, a Burmese, who has very strong feelings in favoring immediate regional military invention in Burma The other blog post, "Sleeping With the Enemy", belonged to Andrew Sheldon, a UNSW graduate, whose area of interest is global politics. For each of the blog, I commented on the content of their post and my responses can be found below.

“State Terrorism, Agonies of Myanmar & Regional Stability (2-3)”

Comment:

First of all, I want to commend you on your post. I can see the passion and devotion you put into this piece. Like you, I do believe that something should be done about the military regime. However, I thought your argument to initiate military action from the ASEAN family was particularly weak. I noticed that you brought up the matter of human rights violations in Burma as the reason for invention when you said, “[we must fight against the] inhuman dictatorship and their Fascism of killing its people.” It is true bringing up the matter of human mistreatment is a very persuasive tactic to stir up a social movement, but not a very effective way to change a government’s foreign policy. Most governments today are not interested in moral issues, and it is often the last concern when it comes to foreign policy. I think the only way to convince the ASEAN family to get involved is by targeting their economic interest. If there is something to gain through intervention such as resources, many of the ASEAN countries would step in immediately to stop this atrocity, knowing that they have access to resources that can proliferate their economy. However, the problem with this tactic is that it is not definite that these countries will gain access to the resources depending on the new government’s policy.

“Sleeping With the Enemy”

Comment:

First of all, I thought you made a good argument on the unlikeness of military intervention by China and Singapore. Like the fact that you mention how China and Singapore’s national interests overpower their moral righteousness. It is apparent today that most countries, especially those in the South Asian region, are always looking out for their economic interest and always wanting to make a profit. As you pointed out, the trade interest lies in “energy resources – offshore gas”, which have escalated investments in Burma from many bordering countries. Thus, China and Singapore will not give up the opportunity to get a hold of that natural reserve. Rather than militarily intervening in Burma’s internal affairs, they are investing millions of dollars in supporting the military junta.

Second of all, I disagree with your assumption that military intervention is unlikely to happen at all when you said, “I just don’t see it happening.” I think an intrusion is unlikely at this moment because their national interest is not being threatened, but it will become the only practical solution in the near future. We must consider that the arrests and beatings in Burma will escalate in a migration of Burmese to bordering countries such as China. This will cause a border dilemma as refugees pour in by the thousands, which would result in human trafficking, illegal immigration, and the spread of viral diseases. Hence, this becomes a threat to China’s national interest because they cannot fully accommodate for all of the refugees. This would leave most homeless and jobless, resulting in a rise in poverty level, and the citizens becoming prone to infectious diseases through mere interaction, which would leave China in a health crisis. By and large, I believe that military intervention will occur soon enough once China realizes that its national interest is threatened by those factors I presented.