Burma Looks for a Space in ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA)

Originally appeared in ASIAN Correspondent

April 8, 2011

The new government of Burma is attempting to join the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), by sending its representatives to Cambodia, who will host the 32nd ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA 32) in September, quoting an anonymous member of the Constitutional Drafting Department of the Burmese People’s Parliament, Kachin News Group [KNG] reported.

According to him, the representatives attended a meeting from 2nd to 5th April as part of Burma’s efforts to become a long term member of the AIPA. The representative team was led by former ambassador and mayor of Rangoon, Hla Myint ( ex-Brigadier General) and included Immigration Office Director, Khin Maung Than, as well as National Parliament Constitutional Drafting Department Vice President, Mya Nyein and National Parliament Constitutional Drafting Committee Member, Khyet Htein Nang.

The General Assembly (Union Parliament) announced on 28th March agreed to seek long term membership in the AIPA. Burma will become the ninth member in the AIPA if approved by the assembly. The present members include Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. That would leave Brunei as the last of the 10 ASEAN member countries without membership in the AIPA.

The establishment of ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization (AIPO) was the initiative of Indonesia. In the early 1970’s, encouraged by the progress being made by ASEAN, the Indonesian House of Representatives came up with the idea of setting up an organization consisting of the parliaments of the then five ASEAN member countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Following the initial contacts, the Parliaments of ASEAN member-states agreed to hold the first meeting in Jakarta to further discuss the realization of the idea to form a parliamentary cooperation forum, and Indonesia was chosen as the host of the first ASEAN Parliamentary Meeting (APM) from 8th to 11th January, 1975.

As a follow up to the First APM, the Working Committee meeting was held at Tugu, Puncak, Bogor; in May, 1975. The outcome was a proposal on the form and structure of the forum for inter-parliamentary cooperation and the proposed statutes to be discussed at the second APM.

The signing of the Statutes of AIPA on 17th April 2007 in Kuala Lumpur, replacing the previous Statutes of AIPO, marked the transformation of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization or AIPO into the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly or AIPA. A new era of a more closely integrated ASEAN inter-parliamentary cooperation set in.

Since its commencement in 1977, AIPO holds its General Assembly annually. The first General Assembly of AIPO was in Singapore, 26 – 28th September 1978.

Burma’s Thein Sein Governmenthas been blamed widely for its seven-step road map that produced a sham constitution, vote-rigging elections and a namesake parliament.