Day Four: Wednesday, December 16, 2015

All wars represent a failure of diplomacy.

Tony Benn

The third Joint Implementation Coordinating Meeting (JICM) begins earlier than usual at 8:00 a.m. instead of 9:00 a.m. as some of the ministers are needed at a ministerial level meeting later in the day.

The main purpose of the day is to approve or dismiss the final draft of the Framework for Political Dialogue (FPD) submitted by the UPDJC. It is of course approved with a few recommendations from the JICM participants, made up of eight from each side.

One thing memorable from the JICM is the speech made by U Aung Min in which he talks about the NCA which was passed by the Union Legislature on December 8. He tells us how he and U Thein Zaw had spent ten days lobbying the lawmakers.

Concerning the NCA being a law, he puts it this way:

“There are three degrees of law: The first degree law requires more than 75 percent of votes and a referendum to amend it. The second degree law requires more than 75 percent of votes but not a referendum to amend it. The third degree law on the other hand requires only a simple majority to amend it. The NCA is a third degree law.”

Listening to him, one may be persuaded to start worrying about the feebleness of the NCA. But there is no question from anybody.

Some of the participants also want to discuss the deterioration of the Tripartite Dialogue into a Pentapartite Dialogue. But others advise to leave it until the fourth JICM.

Closing speeches are then delivered. When his turn comes, U Aung Min says, “We have so far made the impossible possible. We have also managed to break several deadlocks despite a lot of stresses while undergoing them. For myself, there is only one more thing left to do: the first Union Peace Conference.”

What’s next for him, afterward? He says nothing about it. But friends hope that having started on the long road to peace, he should want to come to the end of it.

The ceremony held at the MICC II to present the FPD to the President lasts 20 minutes, 14:00 – 14:20. There is not much to report except the announcement made by him that the UPC will be convened in January as is required by the terms of the NCA.

The rest of the day is spent talking to friends and comparing notes with them.

Then back to the Shan Legends (not Shan Folk Tales, apologies). Do you know that Shans also have their own Robin Hood—two  of them, in fact—who steals from the rich and give it to the poor?

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.