Asean deadlocked in selection of special envoy to Myanmar

Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah (centre) and Asean Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi (right) walk while attending the Asean leaders' summit at the bloc's secretariat building in Jakarta on April 24, 2021. - Reuters

JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/ANN): Five months since the military toppled a democratically elected government in Myanmar, Asean has not been able to appoint a special envoy to help defuse the member country's political crisis and a major obstacle seems to be disunity within the group.

Disagreement among Asean countries over the envoy's selection appears to be helping Myanmar's military, which wants to buy time to solidify its rule, but that has also led to frustrations for some within Asean who want to engage in the issue more actively.