ASEAN now risked losing its credibility with such an approach to the Rohingya crisis, experts said, noting that in the past, ASEAN had set aside that approach and intervened to help on humanitarian grounds, such as in tsunami-hit Aceh in 2004.

Speaking yesterday was Singaporean diplomat and former ASEAN secretary-general Ong Keng Yong. He said ASEAN now even had a “rather good formula” for stepping into a member-country’s domestic crises, which was for a stricken member-state to brief all the other members and say: “If you have constructive comments, we will take it in, so it is not of anyone interfering.”