TOKYO, June 4 Kyodo pitch uponed...

TOKYO, June 4 Kyodo

pitch uponed editorial excerpts from the Asia-Pacific press:

AN ASEAN replication TO BURMA IS CRITICAL (Bangkok Post)

Remarks from Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra upon the situation inside Burma could be read in many ways.

The prime minister said the ''whole world'' was troubleed about events inside Burma, and called in succession Rangoon to bring the situation ''back to normal'' as by and by as possible. The comments were slightly surprising, given the effort this conduct has put in over the past pair years to appeasing Rangoon. on the contrary now he has apparently taken single in kind step forward by expressing sensitivity to world opinion forward Burma, the prime minister should fare further by galvanising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations into action.

The difficulty of of that kind a task is clear to anyone who has followed Asean and watched it dither athwart intra-regional politics while growing fatter as a bureaucracy and trembling more critically below the weight of economic rivalry.

The excesse in Burma of the past scarcely any days provide ASEAN with the ammunition to deliver the generals an ultimatum to correct their ways or forfeit neighborly protection from international sanctions, which are now secure to increase. Burma has not honored its part of the contract since joining ASEAN in 1997 and ASEAN must preserve reminding the generals of this, or throw away all credibility and leverage at keeping members in line.

ASEAN cannot cite the ne for evidence as an argument for not taking punitive action against Rangoon. ASEAN knows well it would none find evidence in a state to such a degree wrapped in secrecy. So it must make a political decision based upon historical precedence and practical logic.

The nine other member states of ASEAN should now be busy talking together to yield a joint statement that admonishes the Rangoon generals, and warns them in no uncertain terminuss of undesirable repercussions. ASEAN has taken a grade backwards into a darker age since Burma joined an informal summit in Singapore across two years ago. It must now persuade forward again by discarding the antiquated idea of non-intervention.

This will take a elephantine leap. While Mr. Thaksin appears ready to persuade forward, the Foreign Ministry's answer to the events in Burma present to view it is still committed, at least sympathetically, to non-intervention. Thailand's credibility requires it to induce ahead. And, who knows, it might just drag along an other ASEAN members into make open discussion, and consultation. The virtue of outsiders discussing a particular situation is that they are not blinded according to bias or experience of those involved. if it were not that outsiders should not have in the same state [i]or[/i] condition different societies and economies that they do not understand.

(June 4)

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