Burma Human Rights Network Executive Director Kyaw Win says that Malaysian leaders are vocal about the plight of Muslims in Myanmar and urges them to use their influence under Malaysia’s ASEAN’s chairmanship in 2025.
By Kyaw Win
As Malaysia takes on the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for 2025, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim faces a critical choice. For years, Muslim minorities in Myanmar have suffered relentless persecution under a brutal military regime.
Malaysia has long been one of the most vocal ASEAN members on this issue, particularly during the Rohingya genocide of 2017, when it condemned the Myanmar military’s actions and called for stronger international responses.
As a Muslim from Myanmar, I know all too well the pain inflicted by this junta on people of my faith. Malaysia now has a chance to champion the rights of Myanmar’s Muslim communities by steering ASEAN toward an approach grounded in accountability and justice for all.
This crisis goes beyond Myanmar’s borders; it affects the entire region. Since the 2021 coup, the junta has unleashed a brutal campaign targeting ethnic and religious minorities, displacing more than 3.3 million people and leaving more than 5,000 civilians dead. Over half the population now lives below the poverty line, a consequence of the junta’s widespread violence and economic mismanagement.
Yet ASEAN’s continued reliance on the Five-Point Consensus has failed to deliver results. The Consensus, agreed upon in April 2021, was intended to address the crisis by calling for an end to violence, inclusive dialogue, and humanitarian assistance, but it has been largely ignored by the junta. The Myanmar people have denounced it, and the junta has actively undermined it.
At the 44th and 45th ASEAN Summits, which were held in Vientiane earlier this month, Myanmar civil society organizations once again called for ASEAN to abandon this dead-on-arrival approach and to stand with the people of Myanmar in their efforts to build a federal democracy. As my organization, Burma Human Rights Network, highlighted in October 2022, the Five-Point Consensus has not only failed to curb the violence. It has instead emboldened the junta to intensify its atrocities against Myanmar’s people. ASEAN’s inaction and its decision to continue relying on the Five-Point Consensus has emboldened it further still.
Malaysia now has the opportunity to lead ASEAN in breaking this cycle by embracing a principled stance that rejects the junta’s legitimacy and supports the rights of Muslim minorities. Given Malaysia’s previous leadership on the Rohingya issue, it is in a strong position to rally other ASEAN members toward a more assertive approach.
First and foremost, ASEAN must cease all engagement with the military regime. Economic ties that benefit the junta, such as the flow of aviation fuel that enables airstrikes on civilian areas, must be cut. The junta should no longer be welcomed at ASEAN meetings; its representatives should be completely barred from all of ASEAN’s platforms.
Malaysia should champion formal recognition of the National Unity Government (NUG) and state-level government structures that truly represent the people of Myanmar…to continue reading, click here.
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