Much tougher action needed to send strong signal to defiant Myanmar

AS far as rebukes go, the one issued to Myanmar’s ruling military this week - by its closest neighbours and fellow Association of Southeast Asian Nation (Asean) members, no less - was as stinging as they come. The shocking news of the junta’s execution of 4 political activists - the first known cases of capital punishment carried out in the impoverished in country in decades - was widely condemned by the rest of the 10-member Asean bloc, with this year’s chair Cambodia describing the actions as “highly reprehensible” and a major blow to ongoing efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region.

As news of the executions went viral, the international community - including senior officials from the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia and the United Nations - joined hands to accuse the Myanmar generals of cruelty. Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan weighed in too, describing the killings as a “grave setback” for Asean’s efforts to facilitate national reconciliation in the country.

Those words don’t seem to have rankled the junta all that much, it seems. On Tuesday (Jul 26), a military spokesman went so far as to say the activists “deserved death sentences many times”. There are now growing fears that more executions will follow, given that the quartet were among over 100 people whom activists claim have been sentenced to death in trials by the junta-run courts since the February 2021 coup.

The timing of the executions could not have been worse, coming just a week before Asean’s foreign ministers are due to meet in Phnom Penh, and only a fortnight after Noeleen Heyzer - the United Nations Secretary-General’s special envoy on Myanmar - made a high-profile visit to Myanmar.

Perhaps it’s finally time that the international community stop using mere words against Myanmar’s defiant and already-isolated junta, and start taking firm action to hit them where it hurts the hardest, and send the strongest of signals that Myanmar needs to fall in line, or face consequences that will only harm them in the long run.

The US has already said that it is evaluating all options, including economic measures that would significantly reduce the junta’s revenues. Washington has urged all countries to ban the sale of military equipment to Myanmar, and to refrain from lending the junta any degree of international credibility.

Malaysia’s foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah suggested that Myanmar should not be allowed to send political representatives to any international ministerial-level meetings. Banning them from the bloc’s annual meetings, especially the twice-yearly Leaders’ Retreat, is a reasonable step but it also removes a crucial avenue to have valuable face-time with members of the junta and to engage them constructively.

As things stand, it’s obvious that the junta has crossed a line, and there is a price to pay for its actions. What’s clear at this point is that it cannot be “business as usual” in terms of how Asean or the rest of the international community deal with Myanmar’s regime. There needs to be a unified response to deal with the issue, and it is actions - not words - that will serve as the stronger deterrent.