Since Singapore is not a substantial supplier of military weapons to Myanmar, we should just stop all arms sales to the junta as a clear statement of our outrage at its recent violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators.

Although Foreign Minister George Yeo has stated that such arms sales to Myanmar had 'been carefully limited to items that are not suitable for countering civilian unrest', we must understand that putting any kind ofweapon in the hands of a repressive regime that does not discern between civilian and military targets is a bad call.

Furthermore, while Singapore may view Myanmar as a small trading partner, the reverse is not true. For an impoverished country like Myanmar, Singapore is ranked third among its import partners, after China and Thailand (The World Factbook 2007, Central Intelligence Agency, USA).

Surely, Singapore can do more to pressure the junta to seriously work towards reconciliation and a peaceful resolution of the situation in Myanmar as we are one of its top trading partners.

Years of constructive engagement by Asean has failed miserably with Myanmar. `

Members of Asean stand to lose their international standing by making politically correct statements on this latest development in Myanmar without imposing any tougher action.

Png Eng Huat

BAD CALL

Although sales were limited to items that are 'not suitable for countering civilian unrest', putting any kind of weapon in the hands of a repressive regime is a bad call.