Myanmar crisis reflects East Timor’s ‘difficult balancing act’ in Asean accession bid: analysts
- East Timor has been a strong advocate of democracy, but has also had to moderate its views in order to gain Asean membership
- Asean members opposed to East Timor’s entry could use its strong democratic stance as justification to deny membership, one analyst notes
East Timor’s comments that it may reconsider joining Asean if efforts to resolve the Myanmar crisis fail reflect the country’s “difficult balancing act” in dealing with the bloc’s norms and its readiness to join the grouping, analysts have said.
Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão said last week that East Timor, Asia’s youngest nation which adopted democracy following its independence in 2002, could not accept military junta regimes anywhere, nor could it ignore human rights violations in Myanmar.
“East Timor will not be joining Asean, if Asean cannot convince the military junta in Myanmar” to end the conflict, said Gusmão, a former independence fighter whose party won the country’s parliamentary election in May.
Since Myanmar’s Tatmadaw, or military, cracked down on its people after staging a coup in February 2021, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has been criticised for its poor and ineffective response in holding the junta accountable.
Despite promising to hold elections this month, the military postponed the move, citing security reasons and ongoing violence in the country. It extended the state of emergency it imposed in the aftermath of the coup.
But East Timor’s President José Ramos-Horta on Monday said it was Dili’s “destiny” to be part of Asean, noting that it was “unfair” to expect Asean to fully resolve the complicated Myanmar crisis.
Muhammad Waffaa Kharisma, researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Jakarta, said Gusmão’s remarks could well reflect the state of East Timor’s readiness to join Asean.
