Protesters make the three-finger salute beside a banner featuring Myanmar armed forces chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing as they take part in a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on July 3. - AFP PIC
Protesters make the three-finger salute beside a banner featuring Myanmar armed forces chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing as they take part in a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on July 3. - AFP PIC

ASEAN, the 10-member Southeast Asian bloc, is not known for making brave decisions. But the bloc surprised the world with one on Friday.

In an overly polite statement issued after a meeting of its foreign ministers, the bloc said it would not invite Myanmar's military leader General Min Aung Hlaing to the Asean summit scheduled for Oct 26 in Brunei.

Instead, a non-political representative from the country will be invited to attend the summit. This appears to be a compromise, but one which will neither help Myanmar nor Asean.

Here is why. Take Asean's five-point consensus. After a meeting with Min Aung Hlaing on April 24 in Jakarta, the regional bloc wanted five things done in Myanmar. Top of the list was a call for the immediate cessation of violence. This didn't happen. To date, the Tatmadaw, as the army is known there, has killed 1,100 people and injured thousands more. The death toll will only rise.

Asean's mistake is to trust an alleged war criminal to hand over the administration of Myanmar to an elected government. Min Aung Hlaing has no such intention. He thinks he is safe on the usurped throne. And he is right to think so.

Not only are a few big powers propping him, but so are some members within the regional bloc. This division within and without Asean came to light when a recent United Nations statement criticising Myanmar lost all its sound and fury after compromises were extracted by the general's powerful backers. This is not the way to put an end to tragedies. Constructive dialogue between politicians and the military regime, the second point, hasn't happened either.

Mediation, the third point, has gone nowhere for the same reason Asean's envoy is not allowed to meet the deposed politicians, the fifth point in the bloc's consensus. Here Asean must bear some of the blame. It is often slow to act.

Take the Myanmar coup. The junta deposed an elected government on Feb 1 and went on a killing spree thereafter, but Asean couldn't act against its own member until April 24. Geopolitical interests? Outside interference? Yes to both.

Even the selection of Asean's envoy to put an end to Myanmar's crisis took time until Brunei put its foot down and chose its Second Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof as Asean's envoy in August. Word has it that he is still negotiating the terms of his visit there with the Tatmadaw. It appears that Min Aung Hlaing doesn't want Yusof to meet with certain politicians. Asean shouldn't allow itself to be dictated to thus. Yusof must stick to his plan to meet Aung San Suu Kyi and other ministers deposed by the military.

Perhaps humanitarian assistance, the fourth point, is where Asean can claim some success. One out of five is a bad score in any assessment, but it is really an awful one when it comes to ending violence.

Compromise or consensus has its place, but in situations where alleged genocide is being committed, like in Myanmar, it is an unacceptable way to arrive at a meaningful decision. Asean's credibility is at stake here, as the bloc acknowledges in its Friday statement.

It needs to act tough against the genocidal military regime. The longer Asean waits the greater the chance for Min Aung Hlaing to entrench himself. And that will be a tragedy for Myanmar and Asean.