The Apple of Discord
Dear Reader:
Two weeks earlier, I met some diplomats from Burma/
Myanmar who told me, according to their information, the government wanted to
make the next Panglong 21the last
Panglong. Top- drawer issues will be settled there. The rest will then be transferred
to the Parliament to be straightened out one after another, as one of them supposed,
“at leisure”.
The information coincided with a statement from a
government representative from the Peace Commission (PC) meeting the NCA
signatories’ Peace Process Working Committee (PPST) and the non-signatories’ Delegation
for Political Negotiation (DPN), 3-4 August, in Chiangmai. According to him,
the Union Peace Conference #4 aka Union Peace Conference 21st Century
Panglong (UPC 21 CP) #3, will have 4 main issues, put together in two packages,
for consideration:
*
Cast iron guarantee by non Burmans not to secede from the Union in exchange for
Right of Self-determination (meaning
having own state constitutions), and
*
DDR (Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration) in exchange for
federalism.
The first package, as you know, was already debated
and negotiated at Panglong 21 #2, 24-29 May, which, to no one surprise, ended
inconclusively.
I discussed this with one of the researchers working
with an international organization a few days ago. His comment: “There’s a lot
of mutual mistrust between the two sides, especially after the new government
took office last year. In this kind of situation, the sensible thing to do is
to start with less contentious issues in order to build trust. But if we start
tackling the big issues you’re talking
about, nothing will be resolved in 4 years, let alone in 4 months.” (Panglong
21 #3 is tentatively planned for December, 4 months away.)
What he said reminded me of a story told by (or
believed to be told by) Aesop, which
goes to something like this.
One day, Hercules was
walking along a country road. On the way, he accidentally stepped on an apple
lying on the road. Suddenly, it became
bigger. Surprised, he stopped and deliberately stamped on it. The more he did
it and clubbed it, the bigger it became until the road was blocked.
The Goddess Minerva
then appeared and said to him:
“Hercules, this apple
is known as the Apple of Discord. Leave it alone and it will stay small. But
rough it up, and it’ll blow up out of proportion. So my advice is do yourself a
favor and lay off.”
Maybe we should do ourselves the same favor?
Tags: Feature
