KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 — The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) must re-examine its non-interference policy on crises faced by member states, said Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar.

The chairman of the Advisory Group on Myanmar said the policy lends itself to external interference by countries from outside of South-east Asia.

"Cambodia is a classic textbook example of how Asean kept silent and foreign forces intervened,” he said during a forum on the growing socio-political crisis in Myanmar at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia earlier today.

Syed Hamid was referring to the Cambodian–Vietnamese War in 1979, when Vietnam invaded Cambodia to oust the Communist Party of Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge), following wide scale totalitarian repressions which led to the deaths of some 1.5 to two million Cambodians at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.

Vietnam was not a member of Asean at the time, and would only join the economic union 16 years later in July 1995.

The former foreign minister said this is a glaring but not unexpected indication of Asean’s impotence when faced with a serious regional conflict.

"Asean is divided and ineffective. On the one hand, member states like Cambodia and Thailand dismissed the coup as a domestic matter to be resolved by the people of Myanmar themselves.

"Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and after some wavering the Philippines as well, expressed concern over the coup and urged restraint and a peaceful resolution to the unfolding crisis,” he said.

Syed Hamid said that the existing policy of non-interference by Asean members meant that the regional body is unable to even discuss events or conflicts faced by its member states, which could have adverse effects on regional safety, security, and stability.

As a result, international and domestic expectations of what Asean is capable of doing remains low.

"One scholar pointed out that Asean states remained more concerned with creating a unified position against external pressure than on developing a single policy towards Myanmar.

"Now it is a general consensus that Myanmar appears more likely to collapse than to democratise,” Syed Hamid said.

The forum discussed the situation in Myanmar since the seizure of power by the military junta from the democratically-elected government under the then-ruling party National League for Democracy at the start of February this year.