Nearly 150 protesters have been killed across the country since the military’s coup on Feb. 1 JAKARTA: Lawmakers from six Southeast Asian nations on Wednesday urged ASEAN member states to scrap the regional bloc’s long-standing principle of noninterference and respond to the political crisis in Myanmar. Nearly 150 protesters have been killed across the country since the military’s coup on Feb. 1. Indonesia’s former deputy House speaker, Fadli Zon, one of the regional lawmakers to issue the statement, urged all parties in the region to keep fighting for the principles and goals of the ASEAN charter, which is the regional bloc’s constitution. “Respect for human rights and the rule of law, and the most important thing is political will to pressure the Myanmar military to go with these principles,” Zon said during the online conference on Wednesday. In a statement read by Sam Rainsy — Cambodia’s opposition leader who is now in exile in Paris — the lawmakers said that the 10-nation bloc, which includes Myanmar, had been “handicapped by the self-imposed doctrine,” which may have been a necessity in the past but had become a “barrier for democracy and human rights enforcement” in ASEAN. “We demand our respective ASEAN governments abandon the old doctrine of non-interference and pursue a new approach of constructive and critical engagement, with the option of imposing trade and economic sanctions on the Myanmar military junta,” Rainsy said on behalf of politicians from Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines who are also signatories to the statement. Rainsy further accused ASEAN governments of “lacking political will and unity.” “While the brave pro-democracy protesters of Myanmar are being killed by the military junta, all other ASEAN governments are demonstrating a lack of political will and unity to pressure the military junta to end the killings,” he said. However, former Thai foreign minister, Kasit Piromya, one of the signatories of the statement, said that the sanctions should not be imposed nationwide as it would only “add to the suffering of the people in Myanmar.” “But there should be a targeted sanction against all the military personnel and civilian personnel that have rendered support to the military takeover,” Piromya said. During the online press conference, moderated by Malaysian lawmaker, Wong Chen, the politicians said that the events unfolding in Myanmar since the military overthrew the civilian government led by Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi in early February showed ASEAN governments’ “impotence” in dealing with a regional crisis. Nearly 150 people have died in peaceful rallies in major cities across Myanmar, according to media reports. Brunei Darussalam, which holds this year’s ASEAN rotating chair, said that the bloc has called on all parties in Myanmar to refrain from inciting more violence. In a statement issued on March 2 after the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting, the bloc also “called on all parties concerned to seek a peaceful solution, through constructive dialogue, and practical reconciliation in the interests of the people and their livelihood.” Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told journalists after the foreign ministers’ meeting on March 2 that the talks were to discuss the situation in Myanmar, following her shuttle diplomacy to neighboring countries to meet regional counterparts and address the crisis. “Respecting the principle of non-interference is a must,” she said. “In this regard, I conveyed my confidence that no single ASEAN country has intentions to violate this principle, while at the same time upholding and implementing values of democracy, respect of human rights, good governance, the rule of law and constitutional government are equally important,” Marsudi said.