East Timor lastly appears to be like set to affix the Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this 12 months. The nation’s accession to the bloc has been a very long time coming. Greater than a decade in the past once I first moved to Dili, the Timorese capital, authorities officers and bizarre folks recurrently touted the alternatives ASEAN membership presents.
The financial motivation for East Timor’s bid to affix ASEAN is as clear now because it was then, however within the present context, its membership will even carry a robust ethical and democratic voice to the bloc.
As a rustic that rightly prides itself on a file of respect for human rights and democracy at residence and help for actions aimed in the direction of justice and self-determination overseas, East Timor will strike a distinct tone than a lot of ASEAN’s different members.
Reasonably than dimming its gentle to evolve to ASEAN’s drained patterns of impunity concerning human rights abuses, East Timor can personal its id as a vibrant liberal democracy and use its platform throughout the bloc to affect its positioning. Nowhere is that this extra crucial than in ASEAN’s Myanmar coverage, which has been paralysed by a impasse for years.
In 2021 within the aftermath of the Myanmar military’s coup towards the democratically elected authorities, ASEAN adopted the 5 Level Consensus. This plan, which requires the “speedy cessation of violence” and a dedication from combatants to train “utmost restraint,” has been rendered ineffective on account of constant violations by the Myanmar junta and ASEAN’s indecisiveness within the face of such violations.
The following diplomatic impasse has left Myanmar’s pro-democracy motion, which now numbers within the tens of millions, with scant worldwide backing because it fights for freedom from a brutal army regime. That is the place East Timor’s historical past of overcoming oppression might play an instructive function.
Like Myanmar at present, East Timor spent a long time below violent army rule, which subjected the Timorese folks to massacres, pressured displacement and systemic violence. Solely by the principled stance of the Timorese folks and sustained worldwide solidarity might they lastly safe their independence in 2002.
This historical past of resilience and willpower provides East Timor a deep understanding of the significance of world help within the combat for justice. The folks of Myanmar are additionally demanding their proper to self-determination, and East Timor should now stand and act in solidarity with them. One space the place the Timorese authorities can present initiative is the involvement of the Worldwide Felony Court docket (ICC).
The Nationwide Unity Authorities (NUG) of Myanmar, which was fashioned by elected lawmakers eliminated within the 2021 coup and represents the folks, has conferred jurisdiction on the ICC and has requested the court docket to research and prosecute crimes in Myanmar since 2002. Nevertheless, the court docket has not acted on the NUG’s request, seemingly on account of consternation over the NUG’s skill to symbolize Myanmar on the world stage.
In a state of affairs akin to this, it’s incumbent on member states of the ICC to refer the state of affairs to the chief prosecutor by making use of Article 14 of the Rome Statute, which permits them to request an investigation in a selected matter. As one in every of solely two ASEAN members of the ICC, East Timor is in a singular place to make such a referral.
This might be a traditionally important transfer and will additionally predicate a sea change in ASEAN’s strategy to the Myanmar disaster, making certain that accountability stays firmly in place in future peace negotiations. A referral to the ICC would additionally broaden the scope of the court docket’s current jurisdiction in Myanmar and would focus worldwide consideration on the junta’s postcoup atrocities in addition to its genocide of the Rohingya.
Critics could query whether or not a small island nation akin to East Timor might have an effect on a disaster as advanced and seemingly intractable as Myanmar’s. This overlooks, nonetheless, the ability of small states to have an outsized affect on worldwide affairs, particularly in domains that require ethical readability somewhat than huge energy positioning.
We now have seen this on the United Nations with Liechtenstein’s efforts to carry the everlasting members of the UN Safety Council to account over their veto powers, Eire’s principled stance on Gaza and, within the Myanmar context, The Gambia’s main function in looking for worldwide justice for the Rohingya.
In a time when the key powers appear more and more inward-looking and isolationist, house is opening up for smaller states to indicate the remainder of the world what it means to guide by instance.
Moreover, East Timor’s leaders in referring Myanmar to the ICC would echo the worldwide help it obtained throughout its personal wrestle for independence – thus permitting the nation to “pay it ahead”. Within the Nineties, world advocacy and UN intervention performed essential roles in ending Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor. Now, East Timor can provide the identical form of solidarity and help to Myanmar, urging the worldwide group to take stronger motion towards its army regime.
East Timor’s accession to ASEAN may very well be greater than only a diplomatic formality. It may very well be a second of transformative management – one through which a small nation with a historical past of profound wrestle makes use of its newfound place to push for significant change. By invoking the authorized mechanisms of the ICC, East Timor couldn’t solely assist maintain Myanmar’s junta accountable but in addition encourage ASEAN to take a stronger stand in help of democracy and human rights throughout the area.
With East Timor taking the initiative, ASEAN might change into a regional drive for justice – a drive that not turns a blind eye to the struggling inside its boundaries.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
