By SIMON ROUGHNEEN
HANOI—Reports coming from the 17th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit in Hanoi say the Burmese representatives have come under pressure from Asean counterparts to add some credibility to the country’s Nov. 7 general election.
However, apart from Indonesia Foreign Minister Marty Natelegawa, his Philippines counterpart Alberto Romulo and President of the Philippines Benigno Aquino III, Asean leaders have kept quiet about the upcoming vote.
A kinder, albeit less-likely interpretation is that what was said to Prime Minister Thein Sein and Foreign Minister Nyan Win behind closed doors has not reached the media gathered at Hanoi's National Convention Centre.
Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan affected a weary countenance when asked whether Burma was discussed by Asean leaders at their meeting on Thursday—though he did tell reporters as much about what was said on Burma as anyone else.
By Friday, it appeared that Asean leaders had given up on the issue.
Surin told reporters that it was now important to focus on the post-election period, suggesting that elections are merely part of a broader process.
A democratic election requires credible electoral laws, open campaigning provisions, free access to information, freedom of the press and a working system of checks and balances underpinned by the country's constitutional or legal codes. However, Burma's poll has none of these features, observers say.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon repeated his view expressed earlier in the week when visiting Thailand, saying “it is not too late” for the elections to be made credible.
Short of wholesale revision of the Burma's governance, however, observers find it difficult to envision how the elections could be made free and fair.
In an email, Aquilino Pimentel, a veteran Filipino politician, said he is “saddened that there appears to be lukewarm support from other Asean countries, save for one or two exceptions, for the upholding of the rights of the Burmese people, which have been trampled upon for more than two decades now.”
Thailand's delegation at the summit has said little about the poll, despite, or perhaps because of the stakes involved for Burma's biggest trading partner.
Host Vietnam has a democratic deficit of its own, jailing bloggers and Catholic land protestors during the past week, prompting a rebuke from Washington DC.
“There have been some recent instances where journalists, bloggers, other activists have been arrested,” said government spokesman PJ Crowley at a State Department Press Briefing on Oct. 29. “This is contrary to Vietnam's own commitment to internationally accepted standards of human rights, including the freedom of speech."
Speaking at press conference during a brief stopover on Hawaii en route to Hanoi on Oct. 28, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: “I would like to underscore the American commitment to seek accountability for the human rights violations that have occurred in Burma by working to establish an international commission of inquiry (COI) through close consultations with our friends, allies, and other partners at the United Nations.”
Australia supports the establishment of a COI, but when asked earlier by The Irrawaddy on Saturday morning whether she would raise the Burma issue at her meeting with Asean leaders on Saturday afternoon, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, a self-confessed foreign policy neophyte, refused to comment.
Clinton is likely to flag the Burma issue while in Vietnam, but has been caught up overnight in a war of words with Beijing over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both China and Japan. China rebuked Hillary Clinton, saying it was “strongly dissatisfied” with remarks that appeared to back Japan in the argument over the islands.
Japanese officials said China had cancelled at the last moment what would have been the first formal encounter since the dispute between Wen Jiabao, Chinese premier, and Naoto Kan, Japan’s prime minister.
The meeting had been agreed earlier on Friday at an apparently cordial encounter between foreign ministers of the two countries. However, Hu Zhengyue, a Chinese assistant foreign minister, later criticized Japan for “unceasingly disseminating” views that he said are a violation of China’s sovereignty.
HANOI—Reports coming from the 17th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit in Hanoi say the Burmese representatives have come under pressure from Asean counterparts to add some credibility to the country’s Nov. 7 general election.
However, apart from Indonesia Foreign Minister Marty Natelegawa, his Philippines counterpart Alberto Romulo and President of the Philippines Benigno Aquino III, Asean leaders have kept quiet about the upcoming vote.
A kinder, albeit less-likely interpretation is that what was said to Prime Minister Thein Sein and Foreign Minister Nyan Win behind closed doors has not reached the media gathered at Hanoi's National Convention Centre.
Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan affected a weary countenance when asked whether Burma was discussed by Asean leaders at their meeting on Thursday—though he did tell reporters as much about what was said on Burma as anyone else.
By Friday, it appeared that Asean leaders had given up on the issue.
Surin told reporters that it was now important to focus on the post-election period, suggesting that elections are merely part of a broader process.
A democratic election requires credible electoral laws, open campaigning provisions, free access to information, freedom of the press and a working system of checks and balances underpinned by the country's constitutional or legal codes. However, Burma's poll has none of these features, observers say.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon repeated his view expressed earlier in the week when visiting Thailand, saying “it is not too late” for the elections to be made credible.
Short of wholesale revision of the Burma's governance, however, observers find it difficult to envision how the elections could be made free and fair.
In an email, Aquilino Pimentel, a veteran Filipino politician, said he is “saddened that there appears to be lukewarm support from other Asean countries, save for one or two exceptions, for the upholding of the rights of the Burmese people, which have been trampled upon for more than two decades now.”
Thailand's delegation at the summit has said little about the poll, despite, or perhaps because of the stakes involved for Burma's biggest trading partner.
Host Vietnam has a democratic deficit of its own, jailing bloggers and Catholic land protestors during the past week, prompting a rebuke from Washington DC.
“There have been some recent instances where journalists, bloggers, other activists have been arrested,” said government spokesman PJ Crowley at a State Department Press Briefing on Oct. 29. “This is contrary to Vietnam's own commitment to internationally accepted standards of human rights, including the freedom of speech."
Speaking at press conference during a brief stopover on Hawaii en route to Hanoi on Oct. 28, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: “I would like to underscore the American commitment to seek accountability for the human rights violations that have occurred in Burma by working to establish an international commission of inquiry (COI) through close consultations with our friends, allies, and other partners at the United Nations.”
Australia supports the establishment of a COI, but when asked earlier by The Irrawaddy on Saturday morning whether she would raise the Burma issue at her meeting with Asean leaders on Saturday afternoon, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, a self-confessed foreign policy neophyte, refused to comment.
Clinton is likely to flag the Burma issue while in Vietnam, but has been caught up overnight in a war of words with Beijing over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both China and Japan. China rebuked Hillary Clinton, saying it was “strongly dissatisfied” with remarks that appeared to back Japan in the argument over the islands.
Japanese officials said China had cancelled at the last moment what would have been the first formal encounter since the dispute between Wen Jiabao, Chinese premier, and Naoto Kan, Japan’s prime minister.
The meeting had been agreed earlier on Friday at an apparently cordial encounter between foreign ministers of the two countries. However, Hu Zhengyue, a Chinese assistant foreign minister, later criticized Japan for “unceasingly disseminating” views that he said are a violation of China’s sovereignty.
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