Day Three, Saturday, 14 December 2013

Today we discussed the BNI’s new vision (what we want it to be) and mission (what we want it to do).

As to be expected, instead of going straight to the point, the process went a roundabout way, that is, by answering questions:

• How has BNI benefited each group?
• What does each group wants the BNI to do?

We also debated whether or not we should continue to use the word “ethnic” to represent the non Burmans or turn to “indigenous” instead. “We were told ethnic Burmans and Chinese should also be counted as ethnicities,” said one. “But we don’t want that, do we?” But later, after failure to agree upon a better word, all went back to “ethnic”, although nobody seems to like it much either.


Finally, the following vision and mission were spelt out:

Vision

The emergence of a broad and independent ethnic media network in support of the development of a federal democracy that is peaceful and just

Mission

The ethnic media network will focus on the following tasks:

• Capacity building for member organizations
• Advocacy for press freedom and ethnic rights
• Networking both at home and abroad

Of course, there are further debates about membership and the new BNI structure which I don’t want to bore the readers.

Suffice it to say the day ended with all of the participants being friends again.