Asean Must Step Up in Myanmar, or Watch Others 'Rearrange the Furniture'

The junta is isolated, the resistance has lost momentum and powers like China are stepping in. Asean needs to act.

- Ravi Velloor

How hapless must a people be before their siblings in the wider region even notice their pain? That must be the question on the minds of millions of Myanmar people as they lurch from one crisis to the next while their Asean peers look away, caught up in their own slowing economies, fears of gathering joblessness and the threat of heavy American tariffs.

Pummelled by four years of civil war, more than three million Myanmar people have had to flee their homes, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which, in 2025, placed Myanmar among the top three nations on its emergency watch list. Attacks on hospitals and water infrastructure are leading to disease outbreaks that the health system cannot cope with.

And it's going to get worse, with the scaling back of American aid funnelled through NGOs like the IRC.

If wonders never cease, neither does misery. Now, the fractured nation has to grapple with the aftermath of the earthquake that hit on March 28. The temblor killed at least 3,700 and injured some 5,000. Estimated damage is in the billions of dollars.

The misery is set to mount as collapsed water systems have forced residents to rely on unsafe sources, leading to waterborne illnesses.

Meanwhile, food insecurity worsens; the worst-affected regions account for a third of the country's cereal production and almost all of its maize.

You would have thought that the band of generals who administer the third or so of the nation in the name of the State Administration Council would have used the opportunity provided by the quake to alleviate its domestic alienation and its international isolation.

The military rulers have done so in the past. In 2008, the death and devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis opened an opportunity for Asean to get involved in the country's affairs, paving the way for elections that led to a military-influenced government taking office and eventual democratic rule.