Malaysia: Keep Myanmar politics out of ASEAN-EU free trade talks
Associated Press | October 30, 2007
Malaysia: Keep Myanmar politics out of ASEAN-EU free trade talks
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Myanmar’s political crisis should not be used an excuse to hold up a proposed free trade pact between Europe and Southeast Asian nations, Malaysia’s trade minister has said.
Negotiations must be free of political meddling and a constructive engagement is a better way to persuade military-ruled Myanmar to open up, Rafidah Aziz was quoted by national news agency Bernama as saying Monday while on a trade mission in Frankfurt.
The European Union tightened sanctions on Myanmar last month after its military junta crushed a pro-democracy movement that some diplomats say left hundreds dead. European countries and the United States have also complained that the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations is not putting enough pressure on Myanmar, a member of the bloc, to force it to change.
Rafidah said China was also censured by the international community when its army cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in 1989. But foreign investors now flock to its shores.
"Today, the same people who condemned China are now crawling into China to kiss their hands and feet to get business opportunities and to be friends with China because there are billions of dollars to be made," Rafidah said, according to the report.
"The same guys are now learning Chinese," she said. "The Chinese must be laughing."
Rafidah, the most senior trade minister in ASEAN and its most outspoken, said such "political hypocrisies" must be kept out and called for a friendlier approach toward Myanmar, rather than isolating it.
"If the FTA is good for the business community, let’s have it," she was quoted as saying.
"Talk to them (Myanmar). Eventually they will open up like China and then everybody will crawl to Myanmar because there are a lot of resources there (and then) kiss the Myanmar’s hands," she said.
Rafidah and other trade officials couldn’t be reached for comment.
ASEAN and the EU, together comprising a total 37 countries and home to nearly a billion people, agreed in May to launch free trade talks after years of wrangling over Myanmar’s poor human rights record.
Some EU parliamentarians have called for Myanmar to be excluded from a proposed ASEAN-EU free trade pact.
For years, Myanmar has faced international condemnation for jailing pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and hundreds of other political dissidents. But the military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, has refused to budge.
The EU was ASEAN’s third-largest trading partner in 2005, with total trade of US$140.5 billion (€97.63 billion), according to the ASEAN Web site.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
