PHNOM PENH—The international community should lift sanctions on Myanmar to encourage further reforms and prevent the country from backsliding on its democratic gains, President Benigno Aquino said.
Aquino joined other leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in calling for sanctions to be lifted, after by-elections in Myanmar on Sunday in which pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi won a seat in parliament.
The leaders are expected Wednesday to issue a formal call for the sanctions — imposed by the European Union and the United States in the 1990s over the junta’s human rights abuses — to be lifted immediately.
Leaving Myanmar on its own during the crucial transition from military rule to democracy risked encouraging recalcitrant factions to roll back the reform process, the Philippine leader told reporters late Tuesday.
“We want to encourage them, we want to promote their stability because it will improve the whole region’s stability and that lays the basis for the improvement of living standards for the entire region,” he said.
“We have to show the people who are reforming in Myanmar that the road they chose is the right road. There has to be a reward.”
Keeping the sanctions in place as the country shifts to democracy might force some vested interests “to go back to where they were,” he said.
Aquino’s mother, former president Corazon Aquino, battled several coup attempts in the 1980s shortly after being swept to office in a “People Power” revolt that toppled the 20-year rule of dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Benigno Aquino was himself wounded in an ambush during one of the coup attempts, and a fragment of a bullet remains lodged on his neck.
He said much depended on the Myanmar people’s commitment to democracy.
“Your power emanates from the people. If people are committed to a direction then the government basically has to follow the people,” he said.
Myanmar’s neighbors should “share our experiences, share our resources, share our knowledge in that transition and make that democracy work”.
Aquino said Suu Kyi’s supporters should temper their expectations in the short term, warning that the road to democracy would not be easy.
“When you are already in office your followers have a lot of expectations,” he said, speaking as a leader who carries his parents’ weighty legacy on his shoulders every day.
“Some people expect that today it’s black, tomorrow it’s white. So the levelling of expectations, I think, should be addressed with her followers.
“But I hope that they are headed toward something better. Getting used to a new situation — that’s when the fear of the unknown sets in.”