March 6: Yangon: Myanmar will introduce a plan to fight money laundering in the country and the draft of the plan be finalized by the end of this month, the local Myanmar Times reported Sunday.

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March 5: (Newsreader) Burma remains as one of the world’s biggest drug producing nations and has failed to implement the international norms of anti-narcotic activities. That assertion was made by the US government in its annual anti-drug report issued on 5 March. The report said Afghanistan’s opium cultivation rate has reached alarming conditions while Burma remains the world’s leader in the production of amphetamines. The US government annual report added, although opium cultivation has dropped a bit in Wa-controlled regions, ya ba or amphetamine production continues to rise.

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March 5: Singapore: ASEAN is worried about the pace of democratic reforms in Myanmar and its impact on ties with dialogue partners ahead of Yangon’s takeover as chairman of the group next year, Singapore’s foreign minister said.

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Parliamentarians across the region call on governments to push for democracy, The Nation reports.

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March 4: (Newsreader) East Timor President Xanana Gusmao and Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta have demanded the immediate release of Burma’s democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. They made the demand during an interview with DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) correspondent Khin Maung Soe Minn in Dili, who filed this report.

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Bangkok: The first batch of Myanmar workers who lost their identity cards and work permit during last year’s tsunami in Thailand has been reissued with the documents, local newspaper reported Monday.

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March 6: Kuala Lumpur: The UN refugee agency Sunday urged Malaysian authorities to free 13 people from Indonesia and Myanmar detained in a crackdown on illegal immigrants and denied issuing documents indiscriminately to asylum seekers.

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March 5: Hong Kong: Indonesia will receive about a third of the US$1.7 billion ([euro]973 million) in tsunami funds raised by the Red Cross, an official said Saturday, as aid workers wrapped up a three-day meeting on how to help the 11 countries hit by the disaster.

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You can tell a lot about a government by the enemies it keeps.

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It will soon be known whether Asean parliamentarians have what it takes to be movers and shakers in regional affairs in the months to come. Belatedly they are getting their act together after years of passivity to make sure that next year’s Asean annual meeting is not in Burma and, better still, to secure the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

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