Day: May 12, 2022

Brunei Darussalam's contingent under the 17th International Monitoring Team, 17th IMT NBD, and the 3rd Independent Decommissioning Body Verification, Monitoring and Assistance Team have safely returned to the country last April after completing their tours of duty in Mindanao, Republic of the Philippines. Yesterday morning, a welcoming ceremony for both teams was held at Bolkiah Garrison.

In attendance was Brigadier General Udara Haji Alirupendi bin Haji Perudin, Joint Force Commander of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces, RBAF. The 17th IMT NBD was led by Lieutenant Colonel Mohd Fakaruddin Zuraidie bin Hj Ramli, while the 3rd Independent Decommissioning Body Verification, Monitoring and Assistance Team was led by Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Shalleh bin Haji Ismail.

Source: Radio Television Brunei

The declaration of Islam as the religion of Brunei Darussalam is not only symbolic, it is a practice. The teachings of Islam shape life, especially for Muslims and those who uphold it as the country's official religion. Yang Berhormat Pehin Udana Khatib Dato Paduka Seri Setia Ustaz Haji Awang Badaruddin bin Pengarah Dato Paduka Haji Awang Othman, Minister of Religious Affairs outlined the matter while chairing the National Level Major Islamic Events Celebration Executive Committee Meeting, and the National Level Musabaqah Al-Quran Reading for Adults for 1444 Hijrah. The meeting was held yesterday morning at the International Convention Centre, Berakas.

According to Yang Berhormat Pehin, the influence and effects of the declaration are highly evident in the country. Within the country, Muslim and non-Muslim citizens and residents live in peace and safe under a just, wise, and visionary monarchy.

Also present was Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Indera Setia Diraja Sahibul Karib Pengiran Anak Haji Idris bin Pengiran Maharaja Lela Pengiran Muda Abdul Kahar, Yang Di-Pertua of Adat Istiadat Negara. The meeting discussed on celebration format, content, theme, date, location and other matters pertaining to the Major Islamic Events Celebration at the National Level and the National Level Musabaqah Al-Quran Reading for Adults which will be held throughout the year.

Source: Radio Television Brunei

His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar 'Ali Saifuddien Sa'adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, has arrived in Washington D.C., United States of America to attend the ASEAN-United States Special Summit, which is held on 11th May and 12th May, at the Department of State. Accompanying His Majesty was His Royal Highness Prince 'Abdul Mateen.

Present at the Joint Base Andrews Airport, Washington D.C. to welcome the arrival of His Majesty was Ambassador Rufus Gifford, Chief of Protocol for the United States. Also present at the airport to greet His Majesty were Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Erywan bin Pehin Datu Pekerma Jaya Haji Mohd. Yusof, Second Minister of Foreign Affairs, and His Excellency Dato Paduka Haji Serbini bin Haji Ali, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Brunei Darussalam to the United States of America. Prior to the Special Summit, His Majesty is also expected to attend a dinner with ASEAN Leaders, hosted by the President of the United States of America.

Source: Radio Television Brunei

More than 100 protesters gathered at the Washington Monument in the U.S. capital on Thursday to call on the United States to encourage democracy and the rule of law in the largely authoritarian nations of Southeast Asia, as leaders from the region met with President Joe Biden on the first day of a high-level summit.

Waving the flags of many of the ten nations that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) or in some cases, the flags of now-defunct governments, the protesters called for “Democracy, not autocracy” in the countries that make up the regional bloc.

The protesters, who mostly came from Cambodian, Lao, Burmese and Vietnamese communities across in the United States, said they were in Washington to draw attention to the lack of democratic freedoms in Southeast Asia.

Signs accused Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is the rotating ASEAN chair for 2022, of being a “dictator” and “killer of Cambodian Democracy.”

“We’re here today to work with other Asian countries to ask the president to convey our message that we do not like the authoritarians in this land of the free,” Rithy Uong of Massachusetts, a member of the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and one of the leaders of Thursday’s rally, told RFA’s English Service.

“We Asians, we like to have democracy, not autocracy in our countries,” he said. “We want to have free and fair elections in Cambodia, monitored by the international community.”

Opponents of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) have been targeted in a five-year crackdown that has sent CNRP leaders into exile and landed scores of its supporters in prison. Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP in November 2017 in a move that allowed the Hun Sen’s CPP to win all 125 seats in Parliament in a July 2018 election.

Flanked by a fellow Vietnamese-American waving the flag of the former South Vietnam, Duyen Bui, who traveled from Hawaii for Thursday’s protest, told RFA that she wanted to call attention to how the governments of Vietnam and other ASEAN countries are not directly elected by the people. South Vietnam was absorbed by communist North Vietnam in 1975.

“So we’re calling on U.S. President Biden to really listen to the voices of the people as he meets with these leaders to put human rights forward within his policy and strategic planning with these different leaders,” she said.

Much of the crowd was made up of members of the Burmese diaspora who held signs denouncing the military junta that ousted Myanmar’s democratically elected government more than one year ago.

“Right now, there’s a new military coup, and we need the United States to help our country that’s being repressed by the military regime,” Burmese-American Stephanie Shwe, who lives in Maryland, told RFA. Myanmar’s elected government was overthrown by its army in February 2021, plunging the country of 54 million into political and economic turmoil and armed conflict.

“And that is why we are out here trying to raise awareness and ask President Biden to give us the support that we need so that our people can be free from injustice and oppression,” she said.

Lynn Lwin Naing, a member of the U.S. Advocacy Coalition for Myanmar, told RFA that all of the rally attendees are like-minded in support of U.S. efforts to promote democracy across the entire region.

“The communities of ASEAN — Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma and others — we’re here to use this opportunity for the ASEAN summit to speak directly to Chairman Hun Sen and also encourage President Biden to help the ASEAN members move forward with issues in ASEAN, especially the crisis in Myanmar and returning democratic government to Myanmar,” he said.

ASEAN governments include several electoral democracies, traditional one-party Communist states Laos and Vietnam, strongman rule in Cambodia and Thailand, a military junta in Myanmar and a monarchy in oil-rich Brunei.

Protesters interviewed by RFA raised issues such as the absence of media and internet freedom in Vietnam to the lack of fair elections in Cambodia and an overall deterioration of human rights across Southeast Asia.

Some expressed their support for Ukraine as it fights off a Russian invasion. Several of the ASEAN member states have strong ties with Russia, and the conflict is an area that Biden is expected to focus on in his meetings with the ASEAN leaders.

Following their rally at the Washington Monument, the protesters marched to the U.S. State Department to hold another demonstration at the site of Friday’s summit.

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The Biden administration and ASEAN leaders have agreed to put out an empty chair to represent Myanmar’s overthrown civilian government during the two-day U.S.-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Special Summit that President Joe Biden is hosting in Washington, a National Security Council spokesperson confirmed to VOA.

Myanmar will be “a subject of intense deliberation” throughout the meetings and the empty chair reflects “dissatisfaction with what’s taken place and our hope for a better path forward,” another senior administration official said.

Administration officials have expressed frustrations that despite ASEAN's adoption of a “Five Point Consensus” peace plan last year, the junta continues its human rights violations.

The United States is supporting various proposals, including for ASEAN to open informal channels with Myanmar’s so-called National Unity Government (NUG) in exile. The plan, proposed initially by Malaysia, was quickly condemned by the ruling junta.

“We continue to look at Burma with deep concern given the escalating violence there,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jung Pak told VOA on Wednesday. “We have continued to work with our ASEAN friends to figure out a path for Burma to return to democracy. So, we welcome any proposals, and we continue to work with all stakeholders.”

The Five-Point Consensus has failed largely because ASEAN has so far engaged only with Myanmar’s junta, said Gregory B. Poling, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“NUG affiliated forces and ethnic armed organizations are winning the fight and control much of the country, so not engaging with them is getting more absurd by the day,” Poling told VOA.

U.S. State Department officials are meeting with NUG representatives during the summit.

Summit dilemma

Beyond Myanmar, the summit reflects the dilemma Biden is facing as he seeks to balance America’s interests in countering Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific with his administration’s focus on human rights and democracy.

At a White House dinner for ASEAN leaders later Thursday, Biden is expected to play the role of gracious host to the rotating chair of the group, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose almost four-decade rule has been marked by corruption, repression and violence. He is spared from breaking bread with members of the Myanmar military that toppled the civilian government last year; the junta did not send anyone to the summit following U.S. and ASEAN demands that it send only nonpolitical representatives.

Other ASEAN leaders also bring their own sets of challenges when it comes to U.S. promotion of democracy.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, the ruling monarch of Brunei, has been in power since 1967. Thailand Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha won elections in 2019 after seizing power through a military coup in 2014. Laos and Vietnam are repressive one-party authoritarian states.

Even in democratic Indonesia, there are rumors that President Joko Widodo is quietly condoning efforts to change the constitution to allow himself a third term. Meanwhile, lame-duck Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is not attending; he will soon be replaced by Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of one of Asia’s most notorious dictators.

Activists are pointing out that by inviting these leaders the Biden administration is sending a message that the U.S. will tolerate human rights violations in the name of forging alliances to counter China.

“One of the lasting images of this U.S.-ASEAN summit is going to be President Biden standing next to human rights abusers from Asia,” Sarah Jaeger, Washington director of Human Rights Watch, told VOA. “Now, he can mitigate that a little bit by calling out those human rights abuses in Cambodia and other places – Vietnam. But so far, we haven't seen that kind of very clear message from this White House.”

Human Rights Watch says having these leaders at the White House stands in contrast with the administration’s goal of an “affirmative agenda for democratic renewal” set forth during the Summit for Democracy that Biden hosted virtually last year.

“The summit’s goals will not be achievable without directly addressing the region’s worsening human rights environment and democratic backsliding — not just the 2021 coup in Myanmar but also the deterioration of democratic institutions in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines, and the fact that Vietnam, Laos, Brunei and Cambodia are not democratic at all,” the rights group said in a letter to Biden ahead of the summit.

Other observers point that the summit provides a useful platform for Biden to engage with leaders who have questionable human rights records.

“It is unviable for President Biden to host Prime Minister Hun Sen at the White House or a bilateral meeting,” said Brian Harding, an expert on Southeast Asia at the United States Institute for Peace. “But at least they can engage talking about things that they might be able to agree on in this multilateral setting.”

Ahead of the summit, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee introduced a Senate resolution last week calling on ASEAN to prioritize democracy, human rights and good governance “in light of concerning democratic backsliding occurring in Southeast Asia.”

However, some observers say the U.S. should be careful of pushing ASEAN too hard considering last year’s challenges to Biden’s own electoral victory over Donald Trump and the attempted insurrection by the former president’s supporters.

“Sanctimony about democratic backsliding when the U.S. is barely a year out from the Capitol insurrection will make many roll their eyes,” Poling of CSIS said.

$150 million initiatives

The administration announced over $150 million in initiatives during the summit on Thursday that they said would “deepen U.S.-ASEAN relations, strengthen ASEAN centrality and expand our common capacity to achieve our shared objectives.”

On Thursday, ASEAN leaders met with a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers for a working lunch. They were to meet with American business leaders and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai at an event sponsored by the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council before a White House dinner hosted by Biden.

The summit continues Friday at the White House and State Department, where Biden will be joined by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Source: Voice of America