The extension of the imprisonment of Burma's pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, on May 27, 2007 was a widely expected move by the country's military government, which has already kept her under detention for most of the 17 years since her party won the national elections by a landslide in 1990.

While Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia (and occasionally Singapore) have voiced their dissatisfaction with the lack of democratic progress in Burma, there is still a lot more that the countries of Asean can and should do to push the regime towards the path of democracy.