Day Three. Wednesday, 24 August 2016

Get to know your opposite numbers at all levels socially.

Friends take longer to fall out.

The Global Negotiator

Today marks my first meeting with the State Counselor from the second row of seats. That is understandable. As I’m only an extra. And our leaders in the first row seem to be handling their job pretty well. She opens the meeting, which is being held at the ballroom of the hotel, saying she supports meeting with people face to face rather than writing to each other. “Talking to each other serves to build up trust. If we don’t have trust, the agreement signed between us will just become a scrap. But we need to be frank with each other. Our words must be true, beneficial and bearable (I think she’s paraphrasing the Buddha’s Six Types of Speech). The most important question in the world, to me is ‘Why?’”

Then comes the turn for our spokespersons: Gen Mutu Saypoe, Dr Lian Hmung Sakhong and Khun Myint Tun to present the signatories’ case, which I won’t be repeating here.

 And here is her response to them:

·         The NCA must be implemented together as equal partners. I have no intention to diverge from it, though I don’t agree with some of the terms there, like holding the political dialogue 90 days after the signing. But I was told it would be flexible and easy to revise, so I had accepted it. (Many will argue here that what is “flexible and easy to revise” is not the NCA, which was ratified by the Union Assembly without objection, but the Framework for Political Dialogue, which needs approval only by the Joint Implementation Coordination Meeting formed with an equal number of representatives from each side, in this case, 8)

·         The JICM will be held today (as requested by the PPST)

·         The National level Political Dialogues (NPD) will follow the 21^st Century Panglong

·         The PPST has requested that there be 3 chairs to preside over the Conference (one each from the government-parliament-military bloc, EAOs and the political parties). But I don’t think the 5 proposed by us (one each from government, parliament, military, EAOs and political parties) has any design to dominate the process

·         Liaison offices issue. The NRPC (National Reconciliation and Peace Commission) shall be responsible to lay down the basic principles

·         Funding issue. Not for the government to get the upper hand, but to see that everyone gets equitable share

·         The signatories’ contact persons to the government should be U Kyaw Tint Swe and Dr Tin Myo Win

·         As for the non-signatories, we should cooperate to produce a common interpretation of the NCA and then ask them to sign it

During the meeting she and Gen Mutu exchange quotes from Victor Hugo’s novels.

When the latter said, “He who opens a schools door, closes a prison,” she responds by saying something like, “The greatest revolution is the revolution of the minds,” mentioning it comes from Les Miserables.

Well, as I have never read Hugo’s works, except those that are retold in abridged forms, I don’t have anything to add, even if they allow me to. But I don’t think anyone in the room is in a mind to do that. Because this meeting, unlike previous ones I had attended, has now a center of gravity: the State Counselor. 

During lunch, government representatives whom I have known since the negotiations began have an advice for the EAOs.

“Next time, please inform the points you want to discuss in advance, so the SC can be better prepared.”

To which one of the PPST members agrees, adding that one problem had been they didn’t know who they could at all times contact. Now that the contact persons have been designated, there should be no more headaches about it.

The JICM, the 4^th since October, and the first time since the new government took over in March, is then held.

The decisions include:

·         Approval of the Union Peace Conference (21^st Century Panglong) Preparatory Committee members (non signatories included)

·         Approval of the new UPDJC/JMC

·         To draft the ToR for liaison offices

All in all, the meeting goes quite well except for the brief and violent interruption by 6.8 magnitude quake at 17:04, which kills 4 (not in Naypyitaw) and destroys more than 100 old pagodas in Pagan/Bagan.

We have a brief review of the meetings today in the evening. I don’t remember much because I have not been taking notes. But one comment by a leader sticks in my mind as I walk back to my room afterward:

“The first Union Peace Conference (in January) was a farewell party for President Thein Sein. The upcoming one, in contrast, is a welcome party for the State Counselor.”

Do you agree?