Since the special meeting of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers in Singapore on 19 May 2008, there has been a lot of criticism and scepticism of the way ASEAN engaged in the humanitarian rescue and relief efforts for the victims of Cyclone Nargis.

Very little real news and information of our efforts were reported to the outside world.  That is bad for Myanmar and not helpful to ASEAN.

I appealed to the Minister for Social Welfare of Myanmar on the morning of 14 June 2008.  I repeated my suggestion at an informal consultation with the Tripartite Core Group in the afternoon of the same day.

I returned to Jakarta and invited the Myanmar Charge d’Affaires to my office on 18 June 2008 to give him the same message and asked him to pass the message to his government in Nay Pyi Taw; and the message was:

“The world is still very sceptical of our joint efforts.  The international community is very critical of ASEAN and UN engagement with Myanmar even on humanitarian grounds.  This has to be balanced.  This view cannot be left uncorrected.”

“You invited ASEAN in.  We came in full force.  More than that, we brought the world into Myanmar with us to help your people for their humanitarian needs.” 

“The ASEAN people deserve to know what we are doing here to help your people.  And we do it in their name. We represent their goodwill.”

“At least you should consider inviting the ASEAN state media into your country to see what we are doing, to see the extent of the damage, to report on the needs of your people.”

It took almost a month after a long and quiet persuasion.  We got word from our ASEAN Coordinating Office in Yangon on the evening of Sunday, 22 June 2008, that we got the approval of the Myanmar authorities to invite all of you –representatives of the ASEAN media – into Myanmar , in time to cover the ASEAN Roundtable on the Post Nargis Joint Assessment preliminary report and in time for the trip to inspect the extent of the destruction that Cyclone Nargis wrought on the Irrawaddy Delta.

“This is great flexibility and accommodation on the part of the leadership in Myanmar.”

“To see the spread and the seriousness of the destruction is a heartbreak. But to see the smile on the faces of the children who survived the fury of the cyclone – at the refusal to surrender and the determination to pick up and get on with their lives – is indeed an inspiration to all of us.”

SURIN PITSUWAN
Secretary-General of ASEAN
26 June 2008