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Justice For Myanmar has today launched the Dirty Over 30 ASEAN Edition to expose tycoons across Southeast Asia who have enabled the Myanmar military junta’s brutal terror campaign.
While the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) claims to support peace in Myanmar through its Five Point Consensus, its member states have not only failed to curb the junta’s violence—they have also allowed companies under their jurisdiction to continue funding and equipping the military.
Together, this shows the complicity of both ASEAN governments and their tycoons in the junta’s international crimes.
The new “dishonourees” are 12 powerful tycoons from across Southeast Asia who are profiting from the junta’s atrocities through funds, the sale of military equipment and the provision of financial services. These business links to the junta and its conglomerates and cronies enable its escalating campaign of terror, which include indiscriminate airstrikes and bombings against civilians since the military’s 2021 coup attempt.
Since the devastating earthquake on March 28, the junta has only widened its terror, launching over 500 air and artillery strikes across the country, even in earthquake affected areas.
Among the 12 high-profile “dishonourees” in Dirty Over 30 ASEAN are:
- Robert Kuok (Malaysia) – Founder of Shangri-La Hotels; Malaysia’s richest man. Shangri-La Hotels has a lucrative land lease with the Myanmar army.
- Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi (Thailand) – Founder of Thai Beverage and Chairman of TCC Group and Fraser & Neave; a beverage and real estate mogul with a net worth of $11.8 billion. His businesses pay millions of dollars in tax to the junta.
- Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao (Vietnam) – CEO of VietJet Air and Vice President of HD Bank; Vietnam’s first and only female billionaire. HD Bank finances Mytel, the Myanmar military’s lucrative telecoms operator.
- Chatchai Yenbamroong (Thailand) - Executive Director of Northern Gulf Petroleum which operates the Yetagun gas project with the junta, providing it with millions of dollars in revenue.
- Lee Tih Shih (Singapore) – Director and shareholder of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) that has enabled the junta to move money, transact business and procure arms.
Despite their lavish lifestyles and international reputations, these tycoons have largely faced little scrutiny for their ties to Myanmar’s brutal military junta.
The Dirty Over 30 launch comes ahead of the upcoming ASEAN Summit in Malaysia, to be held from May 26–27, where regional leaders are expected to discuss the crises in Myanmar.
Rather than helping to resolve the crisis in Myanmar, ASEAN has actually fuelled it through granting the junta false legitimacy, providing military training, obstructing effective international action and turning a blind eye to the business dealings of member states with the military junta and its associates. This has made the organisation complicit in the junta’s ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
More pressure is needed for ASEAN to change course.
Justice For Myanmar calls on ASEAN to end all engagement and support for the junta and encourage its member states to block the flow of funds, arms, equipment, technology and aviation fuel to the junta.
ASEAN member states must take decisive action by blocking business with the junta and its network of companies.
Dirty Over 30 ASEAN Edition follows Dirty Over 30 Singapore, which spotlighted tycoons profiting from financial and arms flows from Singapore to Myanmar’s illegitimate junta.
In 2022, Justice For Myanmar exposed 38 arms broker companies operating in Singapore. In 2023, the UN reported that Singapore was the third-largest supplier of arms to the Myanmar junta, with exports worth US$254 million. The #DoMoreSingapore campaign was then launched to pressure businesses and governments to act.
A year later, with increasing pressure from the public and by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights, it was reported that exports dropped by 83%, showing that public pressure works—and must now expand across ASEAN.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: "For four years, ASEAN has failed the people of Myanmar. Its Five Point Consensus has been a fig leaf for inaction, while oligarchs continue to funnel arms and equipment into the hands of war criminals.
"These billionaires hob-nob with world leaders and invest in prestige projects. Behind every junta airstrike is a business deal and these business elites must be held accountable.
"ASEAN can't claim to promote peace while its tycoons fund war crimes.
"The people of Myanmar deserve more than empty summits and broken peace plans. They deserve action grounded in a Myanmar people-centred approach as demanded by civil society across the region—an approach ASEAN can no longer afford to ignore."
More information:
Read Dirty Over 30 ASEAN Edition here
