To Hopeland and Back: Framework for Political Dialogue (FPD)

Monday, November 30, 2015 Posted by taimoungloi

This trip took me 12 days, from November 14-25, 2015. The purpose was to attend the Joint Implementation Coordination Meeting (JICM) which would ratify the military Code of Conduct (CoC) and the TOR (Terms of Reference) for the Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committees (JMCs), as well as later meetings for the Framework for Political Dialogue (FPD).

Day One, 14 November 2015

When who talks big captures a deer

And the seducer finds a maiden who sleeps soundly

(A Shan saying)

Six days have passed since 8 November, when the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi, resoundingly won the country’s first free and fair general elections since 1990. But judging by the euphoric comments made by my taxi driver, the country’s high isn’t over yet ¾ or about to end soon.

“If you ask me, I can’t even remember the name of the guy I voted for,” he says. “All I know¾and care ¾ is he’s from the party of the peacock (the NLD’s logo). I’m sure many others were like me.”

I don’t say much. And I don’t have to. Because all the way to the hotel from Mingladon Airport, he’s bubbling over with infectious excitement.

Supporters of the NLD, Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, cheer as they watch poll counts in Yangon after the election on November 15. Photo: AFP

“With legions of problems, accumulated throughout the decades, I doubt even Amay Suu (Mother Suu) will be able to resolve them soon,” he concludes as our car nears Green Hill Hotel. “But we all assumed that nothing’s going to be worse than it is now, and, most of all, we are thoroughly sick of the present government and its predecessors.”

Soon after I’ve checked in, childhood friends arrive to welcome me. As to be expected, the conversation inevitably drifts toward politics and elections.

One and all, they are NLD supporters and members. Significantly, none of them are Shans.

“If the elections have proven something,” one of them tells me, “it’s that ballots have beaten bullets.”

“It has also proven that Ma Ba Tha (the Buddhist fundamentalist movement) couldn’t do anything against this rising tide,” he continues. “Neither was the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) signing on 15 October a vote booster.”

Which reminds me of what U Aung Min, who lost in Shadaw in Kayah/Karenni State to an NLD rival candidate, said before the poll: There are ways to woo the voters which are far more effective than the NCA. Only I’m not using them.

“The USDP (the military’s Union Solidary and Development Party) is like a rapist who is asking his victims whether or not they love him. And this is our answer,” another friend remarks.

I later visit my “comrades-in-peace” to discuss tomorrow’s agenda, which includes attending the President’s meeting with political parties.

They tell me a Chinese scholar, who visited them earlier, had told them China is most displeased with Burma. “How can such an undersized country dare to defy us?” they say. “The previous government had already agreed to projects on the Myitsone (confluence of the Maikha and Malikha Rivers, where they become the Irrawaddy), the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone and the Kyaukphyu-Kunming Railway. How could they call them off? This country must be taught a well-deserved lesson.”

I’m not sure about its validity. However, I’m quite sure that it won’t be hard to convince the people of Burma, if it is publicized.

Day Two, Sunday, 15 November 2015

Dad, how do soldiers killing each other solve the world’s problems?

Bill Watterson

At 09:00, many of the EAOs (Ethnic Armed Organizations) are off to the Rangoon Region Legislature, where the President is due to meet representatives from political parties, both winning and losing ones. Among them are the NLD’s U Nyan Win and the SNLD’s Sai Saw Aung.

And, of course, U Aung Min. He shakes my hands, saying: “I thought my friends on the border (he names them) loved me much. I have found out that they don’t. I didn’t get even a single vote from their people.”

In time, the President arrives. In his usual smooth, calm and sing-song voice, he promises smooth transfer of power to the winners.

It is followed by short speeches by the political parties:

Praises

· Signing of the NCA on 15 October

· Holding of largely free and fair elections

Calls to do more

· Fighting in Kachin and Shan States that has made tens of thousands homeless

· Worsening drug problem

· Amnesty for political prisoners especially the student activists

· Myitsone Dam project, not only suspension but permanent cancellation

Warning

· To call on our neighbors to honor the Bandung principles of non-interference

Myanmar President Thein Sein, front left, greets political party representatives during a meeting on Election Day in Yangon.

We decide to leave early without waiting for the lunch hosted by him. Traffic in Rangoon is notorious: it takes at least one hour to get to the airport from the hotel, if you’re lucky. If you’re not, you’ll be stuck in a traffic jam for another hour.

At 15:30 we’re off to Naypyitaw. On our plane, but in a difference class, is the President.

This time we are all given accommodation at the Ingyin Villa, Horizon Lake View Hotel, said to be owned by Asia World.

Already installed there are EAO representatives who, together with their counterparts from the government, have been finalizing the TOR for the JMCs at different levels: Union, State/Region and Local.

Day Three, Monday, 16 November 2015

“How come we play war and not peace?

Too few role models (for peace)”

Bill Watterson

Today the EAOs hold their own Joint Implementation Coordinating Meeting (JICM) to review the situation and what to discuss at the JICM with the government’s side tomorrow.

Everyone agrees the situation has changed what with the landslide—some dubbing it avalanche—win for the NLD.

Attendees shake hands at a Joint Monitoring Committee meeting between the government and eight ethnic signatories to the ceasefire agreement at the Myanmar Peace Center in Yangon on October 29. Photo: MNA

“We need to finish our Framework for Political Dialogue (FPD) in time (by 14 December) but also keep it flexible,” says Dr Lian Hmung Sakhong, Secretary to the Union Peace and Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC).

Sai La from the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) who represents his boss, Sao Yawd Serk, sums it up: “Until today, we, both the government and the EAOs, were strong. Now neither one is,” he says. “The one who’s strong is yet to get on board. And we all need to get it on board.”

Topics discussed today include:

· The Arakan Liberation Party/Army (ALP/ALA)’s JMC-S (State Level) status

· Whether appointment of officials in the JMC should be published in the government gazette

· Participation by the NCA non-signatories in the Political Dialogue

· International involvement in the JMC process (as agreed in the NCA)

· Political prisoners

· Parliamentary ratification of the NCA

At 19:30, I run into Colonels Wunna Aung and Kyaw Soe Win from the government’s side of the JMC-U (Union level). “Everything you’ve proposed has been approved by the War Office,” one of them tells me. “Apart from changing of wordings and spellings, the draft has sailed through. All we need now is the adoption by the JICM.”

Meanwhile, the war goes on unabated in Kachin and Shan States, leaving EAOs, both signatories and non-signatories, wriggling in their seats.

By Sai Khuensai / Director of Pyidaungsu Institute and Founder of Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N)

All views expressed are the author’s own.