THE Philippines has requested the government of Myanmar to give Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro “brief access” to pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, who was transferred recently from prison to house arrest.
The request comes as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) holds its leaders’ summit in Lapu-Lapu City this week.
The Philippines is this year’s Asean chairman, and Lazaro has been designated as a special envoy to “engage with all stakeholders and parties to create an environment conducive to inclusive national dialogue.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) welcomed the house arrest for Suu Kyi and the granting of amnesty to over 1,500 political prisoners as “vital steps in a sequence of confidence-building measures necessary for long-term national stability in Myanmar.”
The DFA urged Myanmar to allow Suu Kyi “to communicate with her family, which would demonstrate a genuine commitment to national reconciliation.”
The 80-year-old Nobel laureate has been held at a Naypyitaw prison since February 2021, when the military ousted the Suu Kyi-led government and sparked a civil war that rages to this day.
Her transfer to a heavily guarded residence, where she will serve out the remaining 13 years of her sentence, came after the former junta leader, Min Aung Hlaing, was elected president earlier this year.
Min Aung Hlaing is on a mission to polish up Myanmar’s reputation, which has been tarnished by accusations of political repression, the massacre of thousands of civilians and the purge of Indigenous peoples like the Rohingya.
The last elections were an attempt to showcase a government that Min Aung Hlaing described as “firmly committed to the practice of a democratic political system, while resolutely advancing toward the consolidation of a Union founded upon democratic and federal principles.”
Instead, the electoral exercise has been denounced as a sham. The civil unrest prevented a good number of the population from casting ballots, since voting precincts were set up only in areas controlled by government forces.
The election rules were also rigged to make sure the military’s proxy party, the Union and Solidarity Party (USDP), wins. Opposition parties, including Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, were dissolved earlier.
Not surprisingly, the USDP dominated the vote, establishing an overwhelming majority in the two-chamber parliament.
The house arrest for Suu Kyi is the latest phase in Min Aung Hlaing’s image-cleansing strategy, announced just days before the Asean summit opens to make as big an impact as possible.
For the Asean, Myanmar is a problem that defies resolution. Min Aung Hlaing’s government has refused to agree to the Five-Point Consensus, the Asean-proposed formula to end the civil unrest and pave the way for inclusive dialogue.
Min Aung Hlaing is fully aware that the bloc’s consensus-based decision-making prevents it from taking decisive action on issues concerning its members.
A political analyst once noted that the bloc “is not designed to exclude. It is not designed to punish, It has always been about inclusion and allowing countries to do things at their own pace.”
The farthest that the Asean has gone is to bar Hlaing from attending its summits. The military strongman is definitely not attending this week’s leaders’ conference in Lapu-Lapu City.
At first glance, it would appear that placing Suu Kyi under house arrest could provide the opening for a renewed and more meaningful engagement with Myanmar’s rulers. But observers do not see it that way.
Suu Kyi is still isolated from the outside world. She is not allowed to see her family. Her son, Kim Aris, wants proof that she is still alive. “Moving her is not freeing her. She remains a hostage,” Aris said.
The last time her lawyers met with her was in December 2022.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors the imprisonment and killing of civilians in Myanmar, believes Suu Ky’s transfer is aimed at appeasing growing public concern, without changing the substance of the detention.
What is clear is that Min Aung Hlaing’s government is once again using Suu Kyi as a bargaining chip in reengaging with Asean and the rest of the international community.
The Philippines, as Asean chairman, must not fall hook, line and sinker for this deception.
