As the final stage of power transfer from quasi-civilian government of Thein Sein to Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD) regime is unfolding, the proposal to install a new Ministry of Ethnic Affairs to look after the interest of the non-Bamar in the parliament has been accepted on 18 March, while at the same time, the war in Shan and Kachin States goes on unabated.
The frustration of the Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) and war weariness, coupled with the desire to live a normal life could be detected in the following statement on Friday, 18 March.
“Our armies are ready to find a real and better solution for ending the civil wars, seeing through a peace process and rebuilding Myanmar with the hope of national reconciliation by cooperating with the government of president U Htin Kyaw,” said the statement from the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and Arakan Army (AA).
The Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) and Kachin Independence Organization/Army (KIO/KIA) also issued similar statements, on 17 and 18 March respectively, that they welcome NLD-led U Htin Kyaw government and would cooperate to achieve peace, development and harmony in the country.
The United Wa State Army (UWSA) and National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), also known as Mong La, have also aired the same sentiment in their statements.
It is clear that the military (Tatmadaw) will go on with its confrontation and offensive mode, as is proven by the recent massive deployment in the Shan and Kachin States.
The argument behind such action is said to uphold sovereignty and national unity, which are just the pretext to hide the military’s real intention of maintaining political edge and ethnocentrism.
Such being the case, the question arises if installation of Ministry of Ethnic Affairs to protect the non-Bamar from injustice ranging from lack of rights to self-determination, human rights to equitable resources-sharing could be earnestly carried out.
But we should first look at the law of safeguarding the rights of ethnic nationalities promulgated last year.
Law of safeguarding national races
Before proceeding further, it would be appropriate to note that the Burmese terminology of “Taing Yin Thar”, which usually means to cover all non-Bamar ethnic groups from the majority Bamar point of view, is also interchangeably used as “indigenous ethnic groups”, “ethnic nationalities” and “national races”.
The nine page “Law Safeguarding the Rights of National Races” promulgated on 24 February 2015 has its aim listed in Chapter 2 as follows:
- To obtain equal status for all national races according to the rights of the citizenship
- To cordially co-habit based on genuine union spirit together among national races
- To protect, develop and improve language, literature, culture, national symbol and historical legacy of the national races
- To promote improvement, development, unity, friendship, respect and helpful supportiveness among national races
- To improve and develop less-developed ethnic nationalities’ education, healthcare, economy, infrastructure and so on, including improvement and development of socio-economy
- To let national races fully enjoy the rights stated in the constitution
The Chapter 3 mentioned the rights of the national races, which is spelled out in ten points.
It said provided the ethnic nationalities are not against the country’s security, rule of law and peacefulness of the community, they are free to practice their language, literature, culture and religion.
It further said that the teaching and learning of language and literature are allowed so long as it is not affecting the country’s educational law.
Other points mentioned are rights to hold cultural traditional ceremonies on special days; innovation, modernization and researching of their culture; equal rights to education, medical treatment, employment and business undertakings; rights to preserve traditional medicine from vanishing, making known and further development; and rights to preserve and protect historical legacy and so on.
Regarding representation, all ethnic nationalities have the right to be represented if they meet the population count criteria as a group, as prescribed by the constitution.
Nothing much are included other than language, literature and cultural protection. But the law does mention in Chapter 5 regarding developmental and big economic projects, including natural resources extraction that concerned departments must inform the population ahead and coordinate with the ethnic groups, but glaringly failed to mention that their consent is needed in the decision-making process.
One positive point within this law is that the ministry could ask for cooperation from various other governmental departments and ministries if the help is needed to discharge the task of safeguarding the ethnic nationalities. And in case it is necessary, the Minister of Ethnic Affairs could file for the Union Government intervention.
Commentary on the law
Last year SHAN reported a commentary on the said law by Richard Zatu, a researcher at the Pyidaungsu Institute (PI) for Peace and Dialogue, has pinpointed some flaws as follows:
- If the country were already a federal union, with the right of self determination for every constituent state, this law would have been superfluous.
- How effective this law will be depends on how strictly the under par democratic 2008 constitution is being enforced. For example, the law has nothing to say about the ownership of agricultural lands and forests by the national races. But according the constitution’s Article 37 (a), The Union is the ultimate owner of all the lands and natural resources above and below the ground, above and beneath the water and in the atmosphere of the Union.
- The term “ national races”, at first glance, appear to include the Burman majority, but later articles show the Burmans seem to have been excluded.
- There is nothing to assure that the person to be appointed as national races affairs minister should be a non-Burman. Also there is no answer to the obvious question: Whether a non- Burman should or should not be appointed as a minister in other portfolios if the national races affairs minister is a non- Burman.
- The law should also have addressed discriminatory practices largely common in appointment and promotion of civil and military personnel and foreign scholarships. These discriminations have forced non-Burman intellectuals to seek jobs and residence outside the country.
- Instead of stating that national races’ mother tongues will be allowed to teach and learn at schools, it should be stated clearly that they have the right to be taught and learned during school hours.
- Informing and coordinating with national races in matters of development projects are simply not enough. It should be stated plainly that their consent is also required.
- A one- year imprisonment for obstructing the rights of the national races is far from being stiff, as it is highly unlikely that the offender would be a non-Burman.
- The words “in accordance with law” and “ if not against the law” are extensively used in the text.
- We have yet to hear that the country has ratified the United Nations Declaration of the Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) which was adopted on 13 September 2007. It should be and the rights stipulated therein implemented, the sooner the better.
Ethnic leaders’ view
Most ethnic leaders view the formation of the ministry for ethnic affairs as positive, while there are also doubts if this creation would actually be beneficial for the intended population.
“It is very good to have the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs because we need to work on national reconciliation and ethnic unity,” said Tu Ja, chairman of the Kachin State Democracy Party.
Naing Han Thar, chairman of the Mon New State Party, said the ministry would forge better relations among ethnic groups.
“It’s good to have this Ethnic Affairs Ministry that can build trust among all ethnics,” he said.
Each of Myanmar’s 14 states and regions already has an ethnic affairs minister. But the ethnic groups themselves want the most suitable one among them, and who is not a member of the dominant ethnic Bamar group, to be the national ethnic affairs minister, said Saw Than Myint, chairman of the Federal Union Party, which includes former members of 16 ethnic political parties and is influential in northern Myanmar’s Shan state, according to RFA report of 17 March.
However, spokesman for Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) Sai Leik has different opinion and told the media that as the ethnic affairs minister would only be vested with protection of language, literature and culture of the ethnic nationalities, the minister doesn’t really have much say in actual political decision-making.
He said.“The 2008 Constitution has clearly given every citizen the citizenship rights and equality. And as the ethnic affairs minister is not given any important task (more than that is given in the constitution), a new ministry, I consider, is not needed.”
He stressed that at the same time, there is no job description on how to implement the peace process. But if internal peace and comprehensive ethnic nationalities’ issues were allowed to be tackled, implementation guidelines need to be promulgated and rights to fully carry out the task has to be discussed, which means a lot still needed to be done.”
Still, most ethnic nationalities are of the opinion that ending the armed conflict between the military and the EAOs as the core priority issue that needs to be handled, first and foremost.
“The most important problem in our country is fighting between military and armed ethnic groups,” said Naing Soe Myint, secretary of the Mon National Party. “The Ministry of Ethnic Affairs should solve this problem first,” according to a media report.
Perspective
By all means, the creation of ethnic affairs ministry is a move that has to be welcome, even if there are argument that in a real federal union setup there would be no need to have such an establishment. But the point is, we are not there yet and should accept and entertain the motto of “something is better than nothing”.
NLD people are already hinting that the ministry should actively participate in the peace process, rather than just play the role of protecting language, literature and culture of the non-Bamar ethnic groups.
Myanmar Times recently reported that U Htun Htun Hein, spokesperson for the NLD ethnic affairs committee, said the ministry was needed to discuss federalism and deal with ethnic armed groups in the peace process.
“Our NLD party holds strongly to the goal of national reconciliation and serving the people according to their wishes. That means the ministry must focus on the ceasefire and peace process,” Daw Khin San Hlaing, a lower house NLD MP, added.
To top it all off, on 21 March, the President-elect U Htin Kyaw, during his speech, explaining the parliamentarians on the necessity to streamline the formerly bloated ministries from 36 to 21, made an unmistakeable and important point of the newly created ministry.
He said: “Besides, we have formed the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs, by firmly holding hands with all ethnic nationalities, in unity together, which is vital for peace, harmony, development and progress including sustainability (of the country).”
Hence, whether one like it or not, the linking of Ministry of Ethnic Affairs to the ongoing peace process is going to be a reality, which will interact with the defence, home and border affairs ministries, controlled by the military. But of course, the feasibility outcomes will largely depend on how the military will react to the policy directive of the NLD regime and its political will to deliver.
In short, this newly minted ministry could be a catalyst or game changer. So far, the military has not actually obstruct the transition, although minor glitches were present now and then, and could even be seen as being largely accommodative. So there is no reason not to believe that the to be expanded role of the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs would also be able to work in tandem with the military controlled ministries, in forging peace and harmony for the benefit of the country and people.
In a nutshell, the attainment of real nationwide ceasefire, working out political settlement, consolidation of national reconciliation and finally, building a genuine federal union have never been nearer like now in our recent past history of some fifty years.
Everyone is now hoping that the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs will play the badly needed catalyst role and change the chemistry of engagement for the better that will heightened the peace process to fruition.
