Letter to the Editor
April 26, 2021
In reply to Ruben Torres’ “Workers vs the military in Myanmar” (The Manila Times, April 23, 2021) we must be wary of some pundits parroting the US push for the Philippines to take a stronger stance against the Myanmar February coup (that unfortunately has since seen over 700 protesters dead) in the guise of protecting “democracy” and “human rights.” President Duterte is preventing exactly this rupture from happening in the Philippines, and we should not allow the Western pressures to wean us from our Asean values of noninterference that has kept our region peaceful.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., who has seen firsthand the hypocrisy of the West, has said, “[W]ith Burma (today’s Myanmar), we work with the powers around Burma to see if we can convince the great powers there. Forget the United States! We talk to China, we talk to India, we say, ‘Can we go back to the status quo?’” adding that the Department of Foreign Affairs “will never listen to the West on this issue.”
He echoes China’s United Nations envoy Zhang Jun, who has urged relevant parties in Myanmar to settle their differences through dialogue. He also emphasized, “One-sided pressure and [outsiders] calling for sanctions or other coercive measures will only aggravate tension and confrontation and further complicate the situation, which is by no means constructive.”
The “Asean principle [of] non-interference and prevention of third-party external interference have significantly contributed to regional peace that has benefited hundreds of millions of people, compared to the Western “interventions” that have left countries like Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan as war zones.
Secretary Locsin correctly slammed the West and dismissed the idea of working with Western countries to address the military takeover of Myanmar’s government.
The US has already placed sanctions on the Burmese officials and is pushing for Asean states to make a stronger stand against the military coup, jeopardizing Asean’s decades-old agreement of “noninterference.” The West is also pushing China to use its influence to hold the Myanmar military accountable. China, in turn, opts to exhaust all diplomatic channels and to work with Asean states to manage the situation in Myanmar.
Why are the purported “human rights” crusaders quiet when the US, the UK, Australia [and] Canada voted against the UN global call for concrete action for the elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. These are the countries constantly calling out other countries on human rights and freedom. “Black Lives Matter” and “Asian Lives” Matter” should be wake-up calls. Why is there no clamor [for justice] when hardworking Filipinos are beaten up in New York or San Francisco — in broad daylight!
PhAseanProgress@gmail.com
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