If Cyclone Nargis baptized the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), as the organizations’s secretary-general, Surin Pitsuwan has claimed, the strong will and resilience of the Burmese people must be commended.

The Asean chief said during the 5th Asean Leadership Forum in Singapore that a new Asean had emerged from its achievements in responding to the challenges of the cyclone.

"We are being baptised by Cyclone Nargis," he declared.

The former Thai foreign minister said that, “with 2.4 million people teetering between survival and death," Asean became the mechanism for getting aid to the worst-hit areas such as the Irrawaddy Delta, helping sort out official objections to the use of helicopters and sending in nearly 300 volunteers.

"The teams have been given full support and reached the areas where they wanted to go," Surin said. "That's a new Asean ready to take on responsibility."

A new Asean? Let me hold my breath.

The Asean chief's hard work since the catastrophic cyclone slammed Burma's delta region in early May is to be recognized, but not the self-congratulatory tone.

Kudos and credit must go to cyclone survivors who endured a massive natural disaster and put their lives back together despite the regime’s slow response to their needs. They are the drama’s true heroes, who resisted hardship and did not give in easily to Cyclone Nargis.

Surin and Asean leaders can, however, learn more from the experience of the cyclone.

Nargis erased the already thin borderline between Burmese in exile and those living within the country. Aid groups, volunteers, NGOs and civil society groups outside Burma have been working with many Burmese groups at home to help Nargis survivors and to rebuild communities and individual lives.

Buddhist monks, who faced the violent crackdown in last September’s uprising, immediately emerged as aid volunteers and damage clearance workers in the absence of the troops who were so active in shooting unarmed monks and activists last year. More importantly, several prominent abbots or Sayadaw traveled to the delta region to help save many lives.

What Surin and the Asean leadership have failed to mention, or perhaps have been afraid to bring up, is the ongoing crackdown on and harassment of aid workers.

Ten aid volunteers have been arrested this month alone, including the country’s popular satirist Zarganar, who was detained two weeks ago. Zaw Thet Htwe, a journalist and private aid worker, and Ein Khine Oo were the latest to be arrested.

While private aid volunteers critical of the regime face arrest, the junta's cronies and apologists have been given free access to the delta region to deliver aid and coordinate with international NGOs and UN agencies and to receive assistance from them.

The irony here is that it is the regime which insisted on not politicizing the humanitarian crisis and that went ahead in holding a sham national referendum, continuing to arrest and detain aid workers and insulting survivors by saying they could live by scavenging in the wrecked countryside.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon echoed the regime's official line, saying the humanitarian tragedy should not be politicized while avoiding any criticism of the regime's current crackdown on local aid workers, perhaps fearing that aid operations could be put in jeopardy.

Politics is, however, hard to separate from the tragedy.

On Wednesday, the UN Human Rights Council condemned "ongoing systematic violations of human rights "in Burma and called on the regime to stop making politically motivated arrests and to release all political prisoners immediately.

In a resolution adopted without a vote, the Council also called on the regime to fully implement commitments it made to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that it would grant relief workers "immediate, full and unhindered access" to cyclone victims in need.

It called on the regime to refrain from sending victims of the disaster back to areas where they would not have access to emergency relief, and to ensure that relocation is voluntary, safe and carried out with dignity.

If Surin and Asean leaders want to witness a "new Asean," they should look into these matters.

I wonder where they are today—the birthday of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, alone in her Rangoon home that has become her prison.

In a statement on the occasion, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: "Sadly, the regime not only continues to keep this distinguished Nobel laureate under house arrest, but there are nearly 2,000 other political prisoners currently in custody. Burma's rulers should release all political prisoners and begin to move in earnest to transform Burma into a democratic society."