From Constructive Engagement to Collective Revulsion, the Myanmar Precedent of 2007

Abstract

Twenty years on Myanmar has come full circle, repeating the events of 1988. Myanmar's Saffron Revolution has come to a brutal halt amidst public outrage worldwide. Violent repression, where the State turns its guns on its own citizens, has come into twenty-first century news screens, causing ASEAN to issue its most strongly worded statement thus far in reaction to these events. The lecture explores the true causes for ASEAN's latest policy shift, evaluates the assumptions underpinning the policy of constructive engagement in the past and asks whether the ASEAN should now adopt a coercive or 'sanctions' model of international law and expel Myanmar or take the view that membership of ASEAN would eventually alter Myanmar's behaviour. Against popular public opinion, the 21st Singapore Law Review Lecture will argue that there is both the means and opportunity today for a coherent, cautiously optimistic, regional response to the Myanmar crisis.