WHETHER one likes to call it Myanmar or Burma, both expressions currently point to a failed state.

With more than 52 million people of various ethnic and religious backgrounds forced to comply with every dictate of the military junta of Min Aung Hlaing, it is no wonder that the people have risen up against him and the Tatmadaw or military.

The cause of the junta began with the personal ambition of Min Aung Hlaing to be the president of Myanmar prior to his mandatory retirement in May 2021.

Yet, deprived of the chance to have the approval of the then state councillor or leader of the National League of Democracy (NLD), Min Aung Hlaing felt completely slighted.

The fact that NLD has romped home to a major electoral factory in November 2020, this despite a pandemic that was fast unfolding all across the world, made for an even more humiliating slap on the proverbial face of the senior general himself.

But things perhaps would not have come to a boil had Aung San Suu Kyi intentionally not set out to deny any opportunity to have a face-to-face dialogue between the “lady” and the “senior general”.

The meeting that never occurred, to allow Min Aung Hlaing to explain to Suu Kyi that the military not only wanted the presidency but also full control of the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Borders and Ministry of Public Security, further destroyed any chances of a peaceful dialogue both before and after the coup of February 1, 2021, which the world has roundly condemned except a bare few such as North Korea and Cuba.

Come what may, the internal insurrection in Myanmar has now become a full-blown civil war, wracking up some 14,000 fatalities over the last two years.

These are people who had been mostly killed by the military, although ethnic groups and tribes have allowed the worst features of themselves to go on an inter-ethnic rampage too, all of which have been clearly catalogued by the United Nations and the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London.

What makes Myanmar an albatross over the neck of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is the negative impression that it has given to Asean and Asean Way, which Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim duly noted when he was in Thailand for a two-day visit this month.

Anwar affirmed that while it is true that Asean does its utmost to practise non-intervention, matters within Myanmar have reached its zenith.

First and foremost, the Thailand-Myanmar border is on a permanent state of alert, as is that between Myanmar and China, the comprehensive strategic partner of Asean.

Myanmar’s borders with Laos and Bangladesh are another massive headache where the latter’s Cox’s Bazaar, with close to 700,000 people, has become a humanitarian redoubt with the lowest quality of life possible.

Second, the inability of the Myanmar military to work with NLD and up to 24 ethnic groups from a total of 55 of them has spawned serious problems of racial discrimination, resulting in genocidal warfare against the Rohingya Muslims in particular.

At any given time, there are 200,000 Rohingya Muslims in Malaysia with another five million employed with low-skill sets also originating from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

These are problems that the likes of Malaysia, Thailand and elsewhere that shares border with Myanmar have had to deal with.

Third, wracked by a Myanmar that is in total disarray, this has brought about the unavoidable odium to the name of Asean.

Instead of being seen as a regional organisation that is firmly principled in guiding Asean – in fact, widely touted as the second most successful regional organisation after the European Union – it is now mired with endless problems.

Thus, the suggestion of suspending Myanmar from the grouping, even if temporarily, should be given the utmost consideration, without which Asean would lose its strategic anchor and diplomatic culture, especially when Jakarta is the chair of Asean. – February 17, 2023.

* Rais Hussin is the president and CEO of Emir Research.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.