What an appropriate venue. The name 'Shangri-La' is the creation of a second-rate English fiction writer of the 1930s and connotes an Asian Never Never Land where life is beautiful all day long.

Here we have the Association of Southeast Asian Nations adopting a 'charter', which is a fancy modern word for a lot of righteous political talk set down in print and, keeping in character, this charter speaks of democracy and human rights.

Looking on over the proceedings was a man who styles himself Prime Minister of Myanmar, a representative of the Burmese military dictatorship that continues to defy a general election in which it was soundly defeated, and which has just brutally suppressed democracy and human rights once again.

Is this man evicted from the room in which this high-minded charter is signed? Does anyone suggest to him that his presence there jars with the pledges of the charter and that perhaps he might want to step out? Is he called on to validate the legitimacy of his regime? Does anyone make any concession to the irony of the occasion?

No, none of this happens. The Asean stance on the matter has already been cobbled together and no one present at the signing of the charter has the gumption to challenge it. The official statement cravenly bows to the generals - the situation in Myanmar is a domestic affair and that's that.

Yes, it's a fantasy world indeed that we have here. The countries of Southeast Asia had an opportunity to take a stance and make something real of their grouping but, once again, they threw it away for the illusion of a unity that does not exist anyway.

And then, to drive home the hypocrisy of the occasion, their charter also dreams in print of free trade, economic unity and cross-border investment ties.

Let's set in perspective how close the larger members of Asean may be to such unity in their own countries.

Indonesia - The Javanese Empire bases the legitimacy of its borders on those maintained by a previous colonial occupying power and continues to hold itself together against ethnic and sectarian pressures only by military might wielded from Jakarta.

Thailand - The most coup-prone country of the region is once again under the heel of a military government installed by a coup, this one with a decided xenophobic bent.

Philippines - A piece of Latin America that drifted across the Pacific Ocean 500 years ago and is still distant from the rest of Asia in mindset. Its president usurped power in 2001 with the backing of street riots, claiming that the legitimately elected president had resigned his office because he had left the palace overnight in fear of the rioters. She then argued that the exchange rate of the peso made her coup lawful.

Malaysia - So unified that when a representative of the dominant Malay party recently brandished and kissed a naked dagger at an official party event so that Chinese Malaysians might know what was in store for them if they got uppity, the Malaysian government and police just looked on in bemusement, this in a country where stoking of ethnic hatred has occasioned past bloodshed. Does silence not betoken consent?

Singapore - At the crossroads of Asean profit. Would the Singapore government care to disclose how much investment money Singaporean bankers handle on behalf of Asean tycoons and politicians who may have reason not to disclose such figures to their own governments?

No, I don't think it would somehow, not when gross capital inflows are equal to about half the size of the Singapore economy.

Yes, it's a fine bunch we have in Asean. You just have to ask how they think they will have the strength of will to put together any form of economic union when they couldn't even show the door to a military thug while making righteous pledges about human rights and democracy.

Are we really to believe Philippine sugar will now be accepted tariff- and tax-free in all Asean countries with no restriction on import levels? Do we think that Malaysia will now have a border-free Asean market for Mitsubishi cars branded under the Proton name? What will be the Asean equivalent of the euro? Where will its Brussels be?

Let's remember that the only real challenge these people had at their big summit this week was to settle a tariff deal with India and they couldn't do it. The Asian EU? Give it to the comedians.

I'll tell you what it's all about. What the bureaucrats of these countries like is first-class travel with motorcades and police escorts from the airport plus lots of photo opportunities and joint communiques. They don't get much of it ordinarily but there is plenty of it on offer at Asean talk shops.

And it makes them feel so good, yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy.