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Commentary
Myanmar’s regime chief Senior Normal Min Aung Hlaing (heart) shakes arms with Cambodian Overseas Minister Prak Sokhonn (left), ASEAN’s particular envoy to Myanmar, in Naypyitaw on June 30, 2022. / AFP
By Hpone Myat 22 July 2022
It’s deeply disappointing to see that seven months into his tenure because the Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)’s Particular Envoy for post-coup, conflict-ridden Myanmar, and after two visits, Prak Sokhonn nonetheless fails to know the truth of the state of affairs within the nation whose political disaster he’s tasked with mediating.
His naivety was thrown into stark aid in an interview with Channel Information Asia through which he mentioned he hoped to make use of the affect of Myanmar’s detained standard chief Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to finish the violence within the nation, which has been devastated by the impacts of final yr’s navy coup.
For the reason that navy takeover, the Southeast Asian nation has slipped right into a state of affairs that some UN consultants are already describing as a civil struggle. The regime is holding Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, whose affect the envoy desires to make use of, in solitary confinement in a jail, and has to date killed greater than 2,000 individuals merely for rejecting navy rule of their nation. Backed by standard help, anti-regime armed resistance has mushroomed right into a rebel on a scale the nation has not seen since its independence in 1948, and which has managed to inflict spectacular casualties on the junta.
Within the interview, Prak Sokhonn mentioned he would ask Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for her views on how her political affect might be used to create a political course of and political dialogue that might result in peace and reconciliation.
“One other level could be to ask her how her precept of nonviolence might affect all of the armed factions in an effort to cease violence,” he mentioned.
The envoy has been to the nation twice, and denied permission by the junta to satisfy Daw Aung San Suu Kyi each instances, so it appears he’s placing the cart earlier than the horse. He mentioned he would journey to the nation for a 3rd time in September and, if he is ready to meet her, would search to make use of her affect to finish the violence.
Conscious of the Nobel Laureate’s advocacy of non-violent ways towards the nation’s earlier navy regimes, in addition to her unwavering standard help and continued standing because the chief of a democratically elected authorities—her ouster and detention by the junta however—the envoy seems to have determined that is the perfect method, believing {that a} majority of Myanmar will hear when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi speaks.
Prak Sokhonn appears to imagine that Daw Aung Suu Kyi wouldn’t approve of the continuing bloody armed resistance towards the regime as a result of it’s not according to her peaceable rules, and he could consider he can persuade Myanmar’s standard chief to return out and say to the nation’s almost 100,000 resistance fighters, most of whom are of their 20s, “OK. That’s sufficient girls and boys. Drop your weapons and return dwelling. It’s time to speak!”
If that’s actually what you assume will occur, Prak Sokhonn, then you might be daydreaming.
As proven by their effusive celebrations of her 76th birthday lately, many resistance fighters—most of whom who’re younger sufficient to be her grandchildren—nonetheless have the best respect for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. However that doesn’t imply that they’d comply with an instruction from her, within the present context, to put down their arms. They’re decided to do away with the regime for the sake of their lives and their nation, no matter the fee, whereas she is locked up by the junta. Extra importantly, their willpower to topple the regime by any means is absolutely backed by the vast majority of Myanmar’s individuals throughout the nation. As somebody who has at all times revered the individuals’s needs, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi wouldn’t dare to defy the favored will. If she did, she could be signing her political loss of life warrant.
Moreover, it ought to be famous that the resistance motion has been raging for greater than a yr. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been conscious of it since her days in home arrest final yr. However she has saved tightlipped concerning the situation. Her silence has left regime chief Min Aung Hlaing jittery; he even mentioned in December that she might hold updated concerning the ongoing political state of affairs, together with the institution of the shadow Nationwide Unity Authorities (NUG) and the violence that has wracked the nation, from her authorized staff, including, “She has an opportunity to touch upon the unfolding points through her attorneys.”
The NUG, which was shaped by ousted elected lawmakers and their ethnic allies to problem the regime’s legitimacy at dwelling and overseas, appointed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as its State Counselor. , On condition that the resistance fighters, recognized collectively because the Individuals’s Protection Power (PDF), are below the NUG’s command, the ASEAN envoy might even see the State Counselor’s place inside the shadow authorities as a cause to consider that any order from her could be applied.
Sadly for Prak Sokhonn, the NUG gave its blessing to the PDFs’ operations from the outset, urging the individuals to “revolt towards the rule of the navy terrorists led by Min Aung Hlaing in each nook of the nation” final September. Almost one yr on, the resistance stays unwavering and the NUG mentioned it received’t reverse course.
It’s evident that the ASEAN envoy is taking his cues from the junta. Throughout his second journey to Myanmar earlier this month, he was informed by the junta that they’d have interaction in peace talks solely when the resistance teams present they don’t have any intention to “destroy the junta-run authorities” and “should not have any intention to switch the federal government.”
He informed CNA, “I mentioned [to the regime], nicely, at the least the door is open. Circumstances will be negotiated at a later stage,” including that “what we’ve achieved to date is already encouraging.”
For Myanmar’s individuals, who’ve already endured multiple yr of brutal navy rule, the circumstances set by the regime are something however encouraging, and serve solely guarantee the upkeep of the navy dictatorship. So, the circumstances relayed by the envoy are merely sick jokes to the Myanmar individuals, who stay decided to rid the nation of navy rule, no matter it takes.
To date, all Prak Sokhonn has achieved is to relay the junta’s one-sided circumstances to the world, whereas making an attempt to steer the resistance to surrender. Given the junta’s ongoing atrocities, together with extrajudicial killings and utilizing airstrikes towards civilians, in addition to torching their properties, it seems the Cambodian deputy prime minister has made little progress in getting the regime to halt these ways.
Maybe he fears that placing stress on the regime would threaten his nation’s financial pursuits in Myanmar. Just lately, Cambodia requested Myanmar to look into stepping up purchases of among the Kingdom’s most vital agricultural merchandise. Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak made the request at a gathering with Myanmar Ambassador to Cambodia Thit Linn Ohn on the ministry final week.
The Phnom Penh Publish reported that Pan Sorasak advisable Myanmar mull over the prospect of shopping for extra Cambodian mangoes, dried bananas, avocados, cashew nuts, candy potatoes, chillies, sesame seeds, palm sugar and longan and rambutan—all of that are regionally accessible in Myanmar.
Cambodia’s method to mediating peace—accepting every little thing the regime says whereas making an attempt to make some further money promoting it chillies and different items already plentiful in Myanmar—is nothing if not distinctive.
All in all, envoy Prak Sokhonn has proved to be a very good listener to the regime whereas remaining deaf to standard sentiment and completely failing to know the truth on the bottom in Myanmar. The humanitarian help he has been making an attempt to ship stays a distant dream for tens of 1000’s of individuals displaced by the regime’s raids and its tactic of burning villages in anti-regime strongholds. His plan to make use of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s affect to cease resistance preventing is an utter fantasy.
If the intention of his forthcoming journey is just to take heed to what the junta says, he could be higher off not losing his time. It might be extra helpful to spend his time brainstorming artistic methods to promote extra dried bananas to the regime.
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