Indonesia’s foreign minister cancels Myanmar visit amid outrage at purported Asean plan for new elections
- Protesters rallied at the Indonesian embassy in Yangon to reject a purported proposal for new polls with election monitors
- The Indonesian government said its position on Myanmar remained ‘unchanged’ and that it was still ‘identifying common positions’ within the Asean bloc
“After taking into account the current development and the input of other Asean countries this is not the ideal time to conduct a visit to Myanmar,” Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told a news briefing. But the possibility of visiting Naypidaw to work on solutions at the regional level remains open, the ministry said.
This came after a leaked government document, confirmed as authentic by a Myanmar official, earlier showed Retno would arrive in Myanmar on Wednesday morning and fly back to Indonesia several hours later, becoming the first foreign envoy to visit the Southeast Asian nation since a military regime seized power in a coup on February 1. It said the minister was in Thailand and could possibly travel to other countries in the region afterwards.
Protesters had gathered outside the Indonesian embassy in Yangon amid widespread calls online for Indonesia and the 10-member Asean bloc, which Myanmar is a member of, to support the results of last November’s election rather than hold new polls. They handed over a letter to a representative from the embassy.
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Thet Htoo Aung, a 26-year-old demonstrator, said of Indonesia’s reported plan: “Absolutely not. We have already selected our leader and our government. Please respect our votes. That’s our true voice and we don’t need another election.”
