Jakarta. ASEAN founding member Indonesia calls for transformative approaches in response to address the Myanmar crisis as elections widely dismissed as a sham takes place.

Foreign Affairs Minister Sugiono brought up the protracted Myanmar conflict in his annual press statement on Wednesday as the backyard crisis continues to cast a shadow over ASEAN. Myanmar is now hosting its first-ever general election since a takeover installed a military government in February 2021, although concerns remain over the legitimacy of the junta-run polls.

“Indonesia has always consistently pushed for a sustainable and legitimate resolution, not an instant fix that can deepen fragmentation. We realize the latest developments, including the Myanmar polls, call for an approach that is beyond business as usual,” Sugiono said in Jakarta.

The minister went on to say that this needs inclusive dialogue and a clear path towards national reconciliation. To this end, Indonesia is engaging with stakeholders, including by “sharing experience in a constructive manner”, according to Sugiono.

Myanmar is set to hold the third and final voting round later this month. The military already claimed a 52% turnout following the Dec. 28 vote. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) also won over 80% of the lower house seats.

In late October, ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn said the group had ruled out sending observers to the polls. However, ASEAN had let its members deploy observers under bilateral settings. News agency Thai PBS recently reported that Vietnam and Cambodia were the only ASEAN members to have dispatched observers for the elections, quoting a diplomatic source. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed skepticism over the polls’ fairness.

“I don’t think anybody believes those elections will contribute to the solution of the problem of Myanmar,” Guterres said a few months ago.

In April 2021, Jakarta hosted an ASEAN meeting that resulted in the “five-point consensus”. This is a peace plan upheld by the now 11-strong group to respond to the Myanmar crisis, which included calls for constructive dialogue and immediate cessation of violence. ASEAN has been unhappy with the five-point consensus’ sluggish progress, but continues to stick to it as its “main reference” in handling the crisis.

As the Myanmar coup will soon mark its sixth year, Indonesia’s annual trade with the war-torn nation has always hit the one-million-dollar mark since 2021, except in 2023 when it dropped to $947 million. Trade totaled $882.3 million between January and November 2025, the latest available government data showed.

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