The extension of the state of emergency comes ahead of the third anniversary of the coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar.
The extension of the emergency status also means that the elections, promised by the authorities following the coup on February 1, 2021, are postponed. Myanmar's military rulers have extended the emergency status several times since taking power.
The decision to declare a state of emergency resulted in mass protests which received a repressive response from the military.
According to the local monitoring group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, since the coup at least around 4,500 civilians have been killed and approximately 20,000 people arrested for political reasons.
Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) stated that more than two million people were forced to flee to various countries, including Indonesia due to violence in Myanmar.
Military junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing admitted that he could not lift the emergency status because it was related to the armed ethnic groups' resistance throughout the country. According to Min Aung, the military is still troubled by coordinated attacks carried out by three ethnic minority rebel groups in northern Myanmar last October. They attacked the junta troops and captured many cities and outposts of the military junta.
Prolonging the state of emergency will certainly not solve the problem. On the contrary, people and groups that oppose military policies will continue to fight.
The political situation occurring in Myanmar also poses challenges to ASEAN's integrity, unity, and relevance. Since the beginning of the conflict, ASEAN, especially Indonesia, which held the chairmanship of ASEAN in 2023, has shown continuous commitment to helping Myanmar come out of the crisis. However, so far, it has not shown satisfactory results.
Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi has emphasized on various occasions that the 'Five-Point Consensus' achieved at the ASEAN meeting in Jakarta in 2021 is still the main reference for resolving the conflict in Myanmar.
The main points of the 'Five-Point Consensus’ such as "violence must stop immediately in Myanmar and all parties must exercise utmost restraint". And "constructive dialogue between all interested parties must be initiated to find a peaceful solution in the interests of the people", hasn’t been realized properly.
This year, the ASEAN chairmanship is held by Laos. Hopefully, the resolution of Myanmar's problems through the 'Five-Point Consensus' can continue to be encouraged to create peace in Myanmar.
