ASEAN’s Height of Hypocrisy

Last week, ASEAN’s hypocrisy reached new heights as Malaysian Prime Minister and ASEAN chair Anwar Ibrahim met with Myanmar military junta chief Min Aung Hlaing under the guise of humanitarian aid and extension of the junta’s “ceasefire.” Meanwhile, the junta continues to attack civilians across Myanmar, as well as weaponize local and international aid efforts, exploiting the devastating earthquake for its political advantage and exacerbating the people’s suffering beyond measure. Instead of allowing the illegal junta to leverage the disaster for normalized relations, ASEAN must align its actions with the people’s will and support their efforts to hold the illegal junta—the root cause of the crisis—accountable under international law. ASEAN must also formally engage and collaborate with the National Unity Government (NUG) and Ethnic Resistance Organizations (EROs) in pursue of federal democracy. In tandem, the UN must stop hiding behind ASEAN and work with the NUG and EROs in taking concrete action to address the polycrisis in Myanmar without delay.

On 17 April, the ASEAN chair met with the junta chief in Bangkok, Thailand. By meeting with the junta chief—a choice made by “consensus decision with [Southeast Asian] leaders”—ASEAN clearly contradicts its own policy banning the junta chief from bloc meetings. This meeting followed the junta’s attendance of the ASEAN defense ministers’ meeting in March on invitation from Malaysia, who co-chaired the conference with India—one of the junta’s leading arms suppliers. In anticipation of the 17 April meeting, Myanmar’s legitimate stakeholders—including the NUG, EROs, and civil society organizations—expressed “grave concern over ASEAN leaders’ engagement with the head of the military junta under the pretext of delivering humanitarian aid,” calling out the junta chief’s responsibility for killing civilians and weaponizing aid.

On 18 April, the ASEAN chair also met by video call with Prime Minister of the NUG Mahn Win Khaing Than—encouraging him “to accept the fact that [ASEAN] must continue to engage, and it is for the people of Myanmar to decide what is best for their country.” In fact, the people of Myanmar have already decided what is best for their country, and ASEAN must support that decision: inclusive federal democracy, free from military tyranny.

In the days surrounding its meeting with the ASEAN chair, the junta continued ground and aerial attacks against civilians in quake-hit areas and beyond, fervently disregarding its own so-called ceasefire, as well as the ASEAN chair’s and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ calls to “cease fire” and “halt all military operations,” respectively. This is no surprise given the military’s longstanding disregard for human life and its persistent violation of ASEAN’s ineffectual Five-Point Consensus, which marked four years of failure on 24 April 2025. It could not be clearer that the junta has absolutely no genuine will for effective aid delivery or sustainable peace.

The 28 March earthquake severely compounded the junta-caused human rights and humanitarian crisis. Since the earthquake, the junta has conducted at least 207 attacks, including 140 airstrikes and 24 artillery barrages, targeting civilian infrastructure and—since its “ceasefire” on 2 April—killing at least 161 people and injuring nearly 300 more. On 15 April—the third day of Myanmar’s Thingyan festival—junta forces bombed a monastery in Kanni Village, Karen State, killing six civilians including three children. The next day, a junta airstrike on Nwar Chan Gone Village, Karen State, killed at least 14 civilians as they tried to flee. On 18 and 19 April, the junta repeatedly bombed Lake Kya Village in Thabeikkyin Township, Mandalay Region, killing at least 26 civilians. Nai Aue Mon, program director of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland, explained to Myanmar Now, “It is clear that the junta is not fighting a war against armed forces: they are waging war against innocent people. These airstrikes are part of a systematic campaign to terrorise, displace, and silence communities demanding democracy and dignity.”

ASEAN, alongside the wider international community, must not exploit the earthquake disaster to normalize relations with the junta, lend it false legitimacy, endorse its sham election plan, or push forward attempts at ‘inclusive dialogue.’ The regional bloc must recognize that by engaging with the criminal junta, it can never bring Myanmar closer to sustainable peace or stability.

ASEAN is deepening its complicity in the junta’s atrocity crimes—as proven by the junta attacks during and after its meeting with the ASEAN chair. ASEAN must stop emboldening the junta to continue its all-out terror campaign against the people. Centering the junta only exacerbates the suffering of the people. Such approach only further emboldens the junta to intensify its atrocities while undermining the people’s ongoing efforts to build a people-led and people-centered solution for Myanmar’s peaceful future.

If ASEAN truly aims to achieve a long-term solution for Myanmar, the only way forward is to heed the Myanmar people’s tireless calls: cut all ties with the junta and fully support the people’s Spring Revolution for inclusive federal democracy and sustainable peace. ASEAN must show its political will, commitment, and leadership to support the well-being of the Myanmar people—starting with ending all engagement with the junta and ceasing channeling aid through junta-controlled and -affiliated groups and, instead, providing aid through border-based channels in collaboration with civil society, the NUG, and EROs.

Most urgently, ASEAN and the wider international community must take immediate concrete action to end junta’s ground and aerial attacks through a global arms embargo including aviation fuel and dual-use goods, as well as coordinated, targeted, and sustained sanctions against the junta and any entity supplying it with weapons or other means of support.

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[1] One year following the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, the former military junta changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar overnight. Progressive Voice uses the term ‘Myanmar’ in acknowledgement that most people of the country use this term. However, the deception of inclusiveness and the historical process of coercion by the former State Peace and Development Council military regime into usage of ‘Myanmar’ rather than ‘Burma’ without the consent of the people is recognized and not forgotten. Thus, under certain circumstances, ‘Burma’ is used.

Progressive Voice is a participatory, rights-based policy research and advocacy organization that was born out of Burma Partnership. Burma Partnership officially ended its work on October 10, 2016 transitioning to a rights-based policy research and advocacy organization called Progressive Voice. For further information, please see our press release “Burma Partnership Celebrates Continuing Regional Solidarity for Burma and Embraces the Work Ahead for Progressive Voice.”