Due to Burmese pressure, Asean's plans to create a region-wide human rights-checking mechanism turned into a disgraceful flop, as the new body will have no powers to investigate any human rights abuses in the region.

The agreement in Singapore has already drawn criticism from many civic society organisations as they see that it actually protects human rights violators such as the Burmese junta.

Debbie Stothard of the Alternative Asean Network on Burma said the summit's results would be a headache for Thailand in the year ahead.

If there had been any significant step forward on the Burma issue at the Singapore summit, Thailand would have had an easy job as the next Asean chairman.

Sadly, there was no unified voice and the leaders all succumbed to Burmese objections to any form of intervention.

Not only Singapore is at fault. Indonesia and Malaysia also failed to agree on a productive approach.

The Philippines says its parliament will not ratify the charter unless democracy is restored in Burma and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is released.

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont did not play an active part in resolving the issue, as he seems content to let the next government deal with the dilemma.

With Asean fragmented, Burma's generals can be expected to be even bolder in doing whatever they believe necessary to shore up their power internally.

Now they have been able to block UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari from upgrading the Burma issue to talks at the East Asian Summit - with the presence of leaders from Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Japan, South Korea - as planned earlier by the Singapore host.

With only words and no action emanating from Asean to restrain the Burmese government, the generals need not fear any interference from their neighbours should they again deal harshly with any future opposition.

The situation will remain unchanged, with China and Asean serving as buffers while the junta does as it pleases.

Thailand's next government, which will be closely watched to see how it handles the transition back to democracy, will also face international scrutiny over how it deals with pressure, including that coming from anti-junta protesters inside the country, to do the right thing for Burmese democracy as well.

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