Members of the Parliamentary Caucus on Democracy in Myanmar (Burma) are welcoming, with a pinch of salt, the announcement that they can debate a motion in Parliament on denying the military-run nation from helming Asean next year.

The motion, which was originally meant to be debated during the last parliamentary sitting was put-off by the government, citing time constraints and the need to debate more pressing issues.

However, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar announced yesterday that the government does not have a problem with parliamentarians discussing the motion and will not block it when the House reconvenes on June 20.

Caucus chair, Zaid Ibrahim, who had been upset with the government's previous discarding of the motion, when contacted today, was sceptical of the declaration.

"If he (Syed Hamid) - by saying the government isn't going to block the motion - is going to support the motion, only then I welcome the announcement," he said.

The motion seeks to deny Burma Asean's alphabetically-rotated chairmanship if the military junta does not release pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and take steps to restore a democratic government in the land.

Governments in Asean's 10-member team have not made strong official stands on Burma's prospective chairmanship apart from leaving it up to the Burmese regime themselves to decide on its given privilege of leading the regional bloc for a year.

However, certain parliamentarians from the region have set up an Asean Inter-Parliamentarian Caucus on Democracy in Myanmar to bring about pressure on their individual governments and Asean itself to stop the nation assuming the chair.

'Hope it's true'

Contacted today, opposition parliamentarian and caucus member Teresa Kok, who is in Singapore to attend the Asean caucus ' one-day meeting tomorrow, said she was feeling hopeful with the news.

"I hope what he (Syed Hamid) says is true. There should be independence among parliamentarians to submit motions in parliament and to debate them without any interference," she said.

She added that the government should not be protective of debating "sensitive issues in the region" as that has been done so in parliament, previously, such as the motion debating the violence in Southern Thailand last year.

Critics have slammed the Malaysian government for succumbing to pressure - from the generals in Burma - by halting the motion last April.

Asean is due to discuss the issue with Burma during its ministerial meeting in Vientiane, Laos next month.

Burma is officially called Myanmar by the de-facto government but the pro-democracy movement and a majority of the Burmese people themselves reject the name.