Indonesia’s foreign minister cancels Myanmar visit amid outrage at purported Asean plan for new elections
- Protesters rallied at the Indonesian embassy in Yangon to reject a purported proposal for new polls with election monitors
- The Indonesian government said its position on Myanmar remained ‘unchanged’ and that it was still ‘identifying common positions’ within the Asean bloc
“After taking into account the current development and the input of other Asean countries this is not the ideal time to conduct a visit to Myanmar,” Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told a news briefing. But the possibility of visiting Naypidaw to work on solutions at the regional level remains open, the ministry said.
This came after a leaked government document, confirmed as authentic by a Myanmar official, earlier showed Retno would arrive in Myanmar on Wednesday morning and fly back to Indonesia several hours later, becoming the first foreign envoy to visit the Southeast Asian nation since a military regime seized power in a coup on February 1. It said the minister was in Thailand and could possibly travel to other countries in the region afterwards.
Protesters had gathered outside the Indonesian embassy in Yangon amid widespread calls online for Indonesia and the 10-member Asean bloc, which Myanmar is a member of, to support the results of last November’s election rather than hold new polls. They handed over a letter to a representative from the embassy.
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Thet Htoo Aung, a 26-year-old demonstrator, said of Indonesia’s reported plan: “Absolutely not. We have already selected our leader and our government. Please respect our votes. That’s our true voice and we don’t need another election.”
Another demonstrator, 22-year-old Zaw Myo Htet, told This Week in Asia that the protesters were angered by the news of Indonesia’s reported plan. “The reason we don’t want another election is we already had a fair and clean election in 2020,” he said. “There’s no place for a military coup.”
The party of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide victory in the elections, but Myanmar’s junta chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, claimed the elections were riddled with fraud and justified the junta’s move to take control during a state of emergency. The junta said it would hold elections, but has not specified a timetable.
Myanmar coup: Indonesia aims to rally Asean for ‘better’ response
Reuters on Monday reported that Indonesia was pushing for Asean to agree on a plan calling for the junta to abide by its promise to hold new elections, with international monitors to ensure they are fair and inclusive. The plan would also call for Asean to mediate between the junta and protesters.
However, Teuku Faizasyah, a spokesman for Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry, told This Week in Asia that the report had “jumped to an early conclusion” about Indonesia’s proposal.
“Indonesia is still discussing the response to political developments in Myanmar with Asean members and the possible outcomes of the special Asean foreign ministers’ meeting,” Teuku said.
Retno last week visited Brunei, the current Asean chair, as well as Singapore to discuss how best to handle the Myanmar issue, and also spoke with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Teuku said it was “too early to talk about the outcome” of Retno’s visits because Indonesia was “still in the process of gathering proposals and identifying common positions”.
He added, though, that “Indonesia’s national position remains unchanged” on Myanmar and that Indonesian President Joko Widodo had congratulated Suu Kyi after her election victory last year.
“We hope for an inclusive process toward a peaceful solution, while honouring the wishes of Myanmar people,” he said.
On Twitter, opponents of Myanmar’s coup said Indonesia, of all countries, should support Myanmar’s democratic transition, which began about a decade ago after close to 50 years of direct military rule.
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Indonesia was dominated by the powerful military under the authoritarian New Order government led by the general-turned-dictator Suharto for just over three decades. Following Suharto’s resignation in 1998 amid the devastating effects of the Asian financial crisis, the country embarked on a democratic transition known as Reformasi.
Where the armed forces for decades had enjoyed all-encompassing power in the archipelago, including holding parliament seats and cabinet positions, it was at the start of the Reformasi period that it was split into two different institutions, and it retreated from civil affairs.
Several experts have warned that imposing sanctions and isolating the military regime in Myanmar will not achieve tangible results. Instead, they said, the focus should be on bringing the junta and the NLD to the negotiating table. Senior regional officials told Reuters that getting the junta to hold elections was the best way to ensure a return to representative government.
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But opponents of the coup in Myanmar, like Yangon-based author and social entrepreneur Win Ko Ko Aung, say Asean, China and the international community should deal a “harsh blow” to the junta and not recognise it as legitimate.
“The people of Myanmar expect not just statements from other countries, but actions that would push the military toward accountability for what they have done to the people of Myanmar in international courts” like the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice.
Smaller crowds continued to gather in Myanmar on Tuesday as the US announced it would penalise two more generals for links to the military coup, while the European Union is considering sanctions that would target businesses owned by the army but ruled out any curtailing of its trade preferences to avoid hurting poor workers.
While the junta’s security forces have shown more restraint in the current protests than it did at other times during Myanmar’s five decades of direct military rule, fears are rising in the region of worsening violence and bloodshed. At least three protesters and a police officer have died in clashes in the past few weeks.
Myanmar coup: a call to stem bloodshed as military’s patience wears thin
Retno on Tuesday told Reuters the “number one priority” now was the well-being and security of Myanmar people. She called for all parties to “deploy maximum restraint to avoid bloodshed”.
The foreign ministers of the Group of 7 rich countries issued their own statement on Tuesday, saying any violence against the anti-coup protesters was unacceptable and that the perpetrators must be held to account,
“We condemn the intimidation and oppression of those opposing the coup,” the foreign ministers said. “We remain united in condemning the coup in Myanmar. We call again for the immediate and unconditional release of those detained arbitrarily, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint.”
Additional reporting by Reuters.
