AN ALL-INCLUSIVENESS PROBLEMATIC: Preemptive masterstroke of three EAOs met with Tatmadaw's blunt rejection
As all
domestic and international eyes are pinned on Aung San Suu Kyi's ongoing China
visit, back at home a preemptive move worthy to be termed as a masterstroke has
been undertaken by the three excluded Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs), with a
joint-statement saying that they are ready to participate in the 21st Century
Panglong Conference (21 CPC), as publicized under the motto of all-inclusiveness,
without leaving anyone behind, by the government.
The five point joint-statement released by the Kokang or Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Arakan Army (AA) are outlined as follows:
1. Welcomes the government's national reconciliation and internal peace
efforts;
2. Welcomes Aung San Suu Kyi headed
Union Peace and Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC) meeting decision of 15
August, on all-inclusiveness and ready to participate (in the forthcoming 21
CPC);
3. Sixty years of armed conflict happened due to the inability to conduct
political dialogue;
4. The people (of Burma) desire for political dialogue;
5. Readiness to cooperate in the peace process; and declares that through
political dialogue, termination of recent ongoing conflict, leading to
nationwide ceasefire, regional peace, development and national reconciliation.
Immediately after the statement, Khin Zaw Oo, the former lieutenant general and peace negotiator of the government's team out-rightly rejected the three EAOs' overtures, stating that he had not yet received the required “formal reply” and it didn't correspond to the criteria demanded by the military, according to The Irrawaddy report of 18 August.
“We don’t have
a plan to hold further talks with the three groups unless they pledge [to
abandon the armed struggle] in their statement,” he said, pointing out that the
statement released to media did not meet that criteria.
While Suu Kyi
has been pushing and advocating all-inclusiveness to level the playing field,
it seems the military faction is determined to impose unreasonable demand on
the excluded three, so that they are left out, which in effect would amount to
be against all-inclusive notion of the government.
It is a puzzle that is hard to explain, as to why the military (Tatmadaw) faction has been so rigidly acting the way it is doing, except for the explanation that it is keen to keep the war flames on by maintaining a war footing on the three EAOs as the state's enemies number one, so as to position itself in an influential political stance, or purely out of animosity and revengeful attitude. After all, all Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) non-signatory EAOs are allowed to participate in the forthcoming 21 CPC, without having to surrender arms and why is it an exception for the excluded three EAOs?
During the last year’s February eruption of in Kokang armed conflict, MNDAA, in alliance with the TNLA and AA, attacked Burma army positions in an attempt to wrestle back its lost territory and power from the military installed local administration.
During the
numerous encounters, the Burmese military was said to be badly beaten, taking
high casualty figures, counting in hundreds, that had supposed to anger and
inflict a loss of face for the top brass, which was hard to forgive. Thus it is
reasoned, the demand for the three to surrender or something to that effect to
satisfy the military's ego and take advantage to revenge, while at the same
time showing that it is the establishment that is calling the shots in the
ongoing peace process and not the National League for Democracy (NLD) regime or
Suu Kyi.
The military knows pretty well that asking the three to denounce armed struggle and repentance of having taken such a wrong course would not be accepted. For them, the armed resistance is a form of political struggle, which they were unable to practice, one way or the other, within the legal fold or being denied.
On top of that, the military's proposal of locking up the three EAOs' armory - within their trusted hands of United Wa State Army (UWSA) and Mong La or National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) - during the peace process negotiations, is unrealistic and only a halfhearted concession, which no one in its right mind would go along with.
Some even
speculate so far that the military wants to show that it is bowing to the
pressure of the people and also the big neighbour across the border by talking
to the three EAOs last month in Mong La, just for the sake of talking, with
unrealistic demands imposed on its adversaries.
To conclude, the solution to this debacle of all-inclusiveness lies with the military faction within the government. All the military needs to do is accept the government and Suu Kyi's lead in the peace process, abstain from acting as “a state within the state” and let bygones be bygones, so that the much publicized 21 CPC could be held in a real all-inclusiveness atmosphere, leading to political settlement, peaceful coexistence and lasting peace.
Tags: Opinion
