Asean should have a ‘full-time’ Myanmar special envoy with added powers, Malaysia’s Saifuddin Abdullah says

Saifuddin Abdullah said Asean needed to ‘go back to the drawing board’ to de-escalate Myanmar’s violence or risk the junta writing off the bloc’s resolve to take firm action

Malaysia’s top diplomat also addressed the junta’s much-criticised plan to execute democracy activists, saying Asean should find ways to stop the hangings

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Malaysia Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah has suggested that Asean’s special envoy for Myanmar should be a ‘full-time’ position. Photo: AP

Published: 10:10pm, 11 Jun 2022

Malaysia will propose an expansion of the powers granted to Asean’s special envoy to Myanmar as the country’s post-coup violence shows no signs of abating, foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah said on Saturday.

Among other things, the proposal may involve making the role – currently filled by Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn – a full-time position with a tenure of more than 12 months.

“We, the foreign ministers of Asean, must really put a lot of effort into the idea of strengthening the special envoy,” Saifuddin told reporters on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore.

The foreign minister told a panel discussion earlier on Saturday that his intention was to broach the proposal when the foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) next meet in India later this month.

Among the member states, Malaysia, alongside Singapore and Indonesia, has been considerably more vocal about their troubled neighbour’s post-coup upheaval.

Myanmar’s junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has thus far refused to abide by a “Five-Point Consensus” that he agreed to in April 2021. Photo: AP

While Asean has drawn up a so-called “Five-Point Consensus” – which calls for an immediate cessation of violence, inclusive dialogue involving all parties and the delivery of humanitarian aid – little progress has been made.