Sanctions Will Only Hurt People In Myanmar: Lee
By Azlan Othman in Singapore

Bandar Seri Begawan - Singapore's Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong highlighted the conesquences of imposing sanctions against Myanmar, which has grabbed the attention of the 13th Asean Summit in Singapore.

Imposing sanctions on Myanmar will hurt the people and not the government, he said. "Singapore is not in favour of imposing sanctions on Myanmar and neither do any of the Asean countries. There are reasons for this.

"Our trade influence on Myanmar is negligible. In Asean, most countries have little trade with Myanmar with the exception of Thailand, which imports natural gas," said Lee.

"If we increase or decrease the influence over Myanmar government, does it help to increase chances of reconciliation in Myanmar? I do not see it will help because you can't force people to make workable view to govern the country by saying I will make your life miserable," he added.

"Myanmar can't move backwards, can't stay put but has to move forward and advance with national reconciliation which is something it has to do."

Prime Minister Lee added that dialogue partners of Asean discussed Myanmar at East Asian Summit over lunch yesterday. In Asean, we discussed Myanmar at the informal leaders meeting and issued a statement.

"Non-Asean members expressed their views on this subject. On the Asean side, Myanmar spoke and explained about the problem. So, this was one of the matters that we have to deal with. It is one of the growing pains and roadblocks, which we have to deal with as a new and growing organisation. It is not easy to resolve."

On the climate change during East Asian Summit, he said they had a good discussion on climate change, environment and energy. "We had a frank exchange of views and leaders came up with positions that had to be taken into account in any negotiations to let the Kyoto protocol succeed.

"We have contributions both from developed countries like Australia and New Zealand and from developing countries like India, China, Indonesia who made adequate presentations as to why for them economic development is a priority.

"Climate change has to be addressed but they can't afford to let people live in absolute poverty in some proportion of the population," said Lee.

Asked about the impact on Asean and East Asia the oil prices that have surged to almost US$100 a barrel yesterday, he said, oil is a matter of concern for many countries.

"For those of us who are not oil exporters and we import all our oil, this is a burden which is growing," Prime Minister Lee said. "It is particularly a burden on the low-income groups and it's also a factor in increasing the inflation rate and the cost of living for consumers in their countries.

"As India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put it, when you wake up with such newspaper headlines, he has no time to worry about the global warming."

Asked about the most significant achievement in Asean Summit, he said the most important thing is the Asean Charter. "We've come a long way. We have negotiated and the text has been worked out very quickly since January when we had the Eminent Person's report.

"It is a good document and expresses our aspiration and what we want to be as an organisation and signal the seriousness of purpose of Asean and its proper decision making process. The charter now has to be ratified in time for the next Aseart meeting in Bangkok. The ratification process depends on the legislatures and some of the legislatures do not always ratify everything. Arroyo has already said that she may have difficulties," he said. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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