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JAKARTA: This year's election in Myanmar should not be made into a make-or-break issue in the country's road to democracy, says Indonesia's Foreign Minister.
In an exclusive interview with Channel NewsAsia, Dr Marty Natalegawa said it is impossible to expect Myanmar to hold a perfectly democratic election right away.
Although not on the main agenda, the Myanmar issue is likely to get the attention of ASEAN leaders during their 16th annual summit in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Hanoi is sparing no effort to welcome leaders of the 10 ASEAN member countries for their annual gathering.
The implementation of the grouping's landmark Charter and the roadmap for the 2015 ASEAN community will be the main agenda.
But the upcoming election in Myanmar could also dominate discussions.
And Indonesia - which went through political reform a decade ago - is expected to share its views.
Its Foreign Minister visited Yangon recently and he came away with reservations about Myanmar's first election in two decades.
Under the country's new election laws, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party will have to expel her if it wants to take part in the polls.
Dr Marty said: "We are trying very hard to ascertain as to what extent this sets of laws are consistent or inadvertently impede the holding of a multi-party election, an inclusive one and the likes. So we are yet to be fully ... informed and fully come to a good judgment, conclusion as to whether in fact the two are necessarily inconsistent with one another."
But Indonesia believes there is still hope.
Dr Marty said: "We have been trying to encourage the authorities in Myanmar and other elements in Myanmar society to see one another as being part of the solution. We think the situation in Myanmar as it was in Indonesia before. It is not ripe for a solution that is an either or zero-sum relationship as if the ascendancy of one must be at the cost of the other."
Indonesia is comparing notes with the Myanmar government, having experienced its own historic transition to democracy.
And the military leaders in Yangon could possibly take a leaf from Jakarta's political reform.
Dr Marty added: "Now from the vantage point of 2010 - we would say wow! - even at that time even in 1999 we still have members of our armed forces sitting in parliament unelected. But over time the constitution was revised and reformed, and eventually we are where we are now.
"So we don't want to be trying to be going for the perfect in one go. It's step by step. The election should be the beginning of the solution to the situation ... beginning of a progress really to the situation in Myanmar, not to be the source of new problems."
ASEAN leaders meeting in Hanoi this week would probably whisper the same message to their Myanmar counterpart.
But after all is said and done, Myanmar would have to find answers to its own challenges. ASEAN would go as far as offering their views but will abide by its policy of non-interference in its members internal affairs - even if it hurts the grouping's image. - CNA/de
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