ASEAN’s re-engagement risks legitimizing junta without delivering for Myanmar’s people, says APHR

ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) warns that ASEAN’s shift toward “calibrated re-engagement” with Myanmar’s military-appointed government risks normalizing a dictatorship without securing any tangible results for the Myanmar people, according to a press release 15 July. “ASEAN cannot call this progress. What we are witnessing is the normalization of a dictatorship, dressed up as diplomatic language. Five years of impunity have not been met with accountability, instead, they have been given a seat at the table,” said Mercy Chriesty Barends, Member of the House of Representatives of Indonesia, and Chairperson of APHR. The Thai chair’s statement invoked “confidence-building” and “conditions for calibrated re-engagement,” language that sits uneasily alongside ASEAN’s continued insistence that the Five-Point Consensus (5PC) “remains valid”. This claim rings hollow just days after Myanmar’s Pyidaungsu Hluttaw passed a motion calling on the regime to review the 5PC outright – a direct rebuke of the framework ASEAN still calls its “primary reference” for resolving the crisis. APHR notes that Singapore and Malaysia’s public reaffirmations of the 5PC underscore a bloc more divided than united on Myanmar policy. For Myanmar’s people, enduring intensified military offensives and a widening urban-rural divide in safety, this meeting changes little on the ground. APHR urges ASEAN to ensure its diplomatic recalibration does not come at the cost of the accountability and justice Myanmar’s people have been demanding since the coup. APHR reiterates that any re-engagement with Naypyidaw must be measured against the key commitments under the 5PC – an immediate end to violence, constructive dialogue among all parties including pro-democracy groups, and unimpeded provision of humanitarian assistance.