One of the good news that came out of the latest meeting between the Armed Resistance Movements (ARMs)’s Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) and Naypyitaw’s Union Peacemaking Work Committee (UPWC), 9-10 March, was that the “one text” also known as “single text” negotiating technique would be reactivated.

The technique was introduced by the newly established Pyidaungsu Institute (PI) for Peace and Dialogue following the deadlock between the two sides reached in November in Myitkyina. The PI’s suggestion that the “one text document” technique should be given a chance was accepted. The result was the report by both sides, after meeting again on 15 December, that they were 50% in agreement. Two weeks later they met again and found that they were 80% in agreement.

However, since then there had been no mention of the “one/single text document” by either side. The result was the negotiators were unable to report little headway about their talks—until now.

For those who are unfamiliar with the technique, the following excerpt may be useful:

“A single-text negotiating strategy is a form of mediation that employs the use of a single document that ties in the often wide-ranging interests of stakeholders in a conflict. Parties to the conflict add, subtract and refine the text, which represents a “placeholder agreement” and is intended to be the foundation for a final ratified agreement. However, since all parties must agree to the final document and offensive entries may lead to a cessation of the process, disputants must also be sensitive to how their changes to the text will be perceived by the other parties… “The advantage of this model,” Scott McCreary suggests, “is it encourages parties to talk to...focus on each other's interests instead of drafting competing documents that meet only the interests of smaller coalitions.”” (M. Shane Smith)

A successful example of the one text negotiation was the Camp David Accord signed between Israeli Prime Minister Begin and Egyptian President Sadat on 17 September 1978.

The next meeting between the NCCT and UPWC has been scheduled at the end of March.
Let us therefore hope it turns out right.