It was awkward to see the Burmese junta, the worst human rights violator in Southeast Asia, sign the new Asean charter on Monday, which includes a human rights charter.

The signing “demonstrates our strong commitment to embrace the common values and aspiration of the people of Asean to build… a sharing and caring community,” said Burma’s Foreign Minister Nyan Win at the signing ceremony in Singapore.     

Ironically, Burma, in terms of human rights and Asean, has garnered phrases like “hot potato,” “problem child” and “thorn” ever since it joined Asean in 1997. The regional group has had repeated problems in dealing with the European Union and the United States when it comes to Burma’s human rights violations and suppression of democracy during the past decade.

Asean seemed to have a view that bringing Burma into the grouping might tame the hard-line generals. But, in reality, the junta has cunningly manipulated Asean to its own benefit.

“Accepting the charter seems to be a way for the ruling junta to rebuild its credibility,” said Han Thar Myint, a spokesperson of the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy. “Burma had signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the past, but we all have witnessed what is going on in the country.”

At their recent meeting, the Asean foreign ministers called for the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the secretary of the opposition group, the National League for Democracy (NLD), and other political detainees. But it will never happen. The military regime has about 2,000 political prisoners in its jails now, and Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest in Rangoon.   

On July 18, a 49-year-old political prisoner, Khin Maung Tint, died of tuberculosis after serving 10 years of his 20-year imprisonment in Mandalay Prison, according to the Thailand-based rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).

Khin Maung Tint was the 137th political prisoner to die in the junta’s jails since 1988, due to lack of proper healthcare or torture, said the rights group.

“The latest death reflects a kind of systematic execution of political prisoners that is going on in Burma’s prisons,” said Tate Naing, secretary of the group. “Who can survive without adequate healthcare in Burma’s terrible prison conditions?”

A glimmer of hope for the release of Suu Kyi was raised on Sunday when the Asean foreign ministers thought they heard their counterpart, Nyan Win, say at a dinner that Suu Kyi might be freed by December this year. The news was released by Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo. But, he clarified his remarks the next day, saying the statement was misheard and the detention would last at least until November 2009.

When it comes to Burma, good news is always like that. It sounds good, but then it evaporates.

In 2010, the junta will hold general elections, after refusing to honor the results of the 1990 elections wherein the NLD won more than 80 percent of the contested positions.

The generals will not let Suu Kyi’s party win again in 2010. Suu Kyi has always caused trouble for the junta, especially when she is at-large. How can the generals release her before 2010?   

Actually, the whole issue of Asean as a champion of democracy and human rights is something to ponder. Members Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are not widely viewed as open to human rights and democracy. Even the founders of Asean—Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand—have spotty records when viewed from a democratic and human rights’ perspective. 
 
Asean has little chance of becoming an effective organization that promotes democracy and human rights, along the lines of the EU, so long as it clings to its questionable guiding principle of non-interference in a member country’s affairs, and its own member countries themselves fail to live up to basic democratic and human rights principles.

I hope it’s not so, but it’s highly likely that the only thing the Asean human rights charter will accomplish is to bring more frustration and shattered dreams to the people of Asia.