An academic, who has been working closely with ethnic resistance movements for more than 20 years, said yesterday the 31 October high-level talks held in Naypyitaw is a new game in town that the movements should be a part of.

The talks which has become known to the media as a “pentapartite dialogue,” in contrast with the already year- long call for a quadripartite dialogue by the National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi was attended by 14 representatives from the government, legislature, military, democratic parties and ethnic parties. The Lady, as she is known, has been demanding a meeting between her and the President, Union Assembly Speaker and Commander-in-Chief.

“It doesn’t mean that the NCA (Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement) negotiations should be put off or killed,” the scholar, who clearly does not prefer identification, said. “But, by the look of things, they should be given more time. And the whole peace process should not come to a halt because there is a hitch which is normal in this kind of negotiations.”

 Commenting on the 31 October high-level talks, he said, “It is, in a way, a response to The Lady’s call. It is also still in a tentative format but has great potential to expand.”

Comparing with Sri Lanka, he thought that the Tamil Tigers had made a costly miscalculation. “At first they were dealing with a moderate government,” he said. “And with all the concessions coming from it, they had overestimated their leverage.  We don’t want the ethnic movements in Burma to make their own miscalculation.  Because after the 2015 elections, no one knows for sure how the balance of power will change.”

President Thein Sein, during his opening address, said, “We will attain success and overcome these challenges only if Myanmar’s political forces come together in a common purpose. I also believe we will be able to come up with the solutions that will aid our current political process if the political forces present here today work together.”

The 3 agendas he had proposed were: continuation of the democratic transition and the political process, ways to strengthen the peace process and how to successfully carry out the 2015 elections. 

During his monthly radio address to the nation yesterday, he had dubbed the 31 October talks “the start of a new political culture, where we talk to each other and embrace dialogue instead of resorting to confrontational approaches when trying to find solutions to overcome our common challenges.”

Both Hkun Htun Oo, representative of the 1990 elections winning ethnic coalition United Nationalities Alliance (UNA) and Sai Aik Pao, representative for the 2010 elections winning ethnic coalition, Nationalities Brotherhood Federation (NBF) had called for a swift conclusion of the NCA negotiations and the start of the political dialogue in early 2015. Both had also demanded a review of the Commander-in-Chief’s 6 point condition. # 5 To abide by existing laws and # 6 To abide by the 2008 constitution have been holding up the peace process, according to them.