Day Two. Tuesday, 24 May 2016

When no credit is taken

Accomplishment endures.

Tao Te Ching (Book of The Way and its Derivative), Chapter Two

I don’t have much to say about today. We have 3 meetings, all about pure academic and technical matters

Even so, information on current political situation keeps turning up, and here are some of them:

• Already, there are signs of fallout between those who want to follow the NCA “to the latter” and those who are more for its “spirit” than the letter among the peacemakers on both sides. Some of the former are said to be even against the “21^st Century Panglong Conference,” not because they are against the Panglong Spirit (the term adopted by the NCA), but because the NCA mentions only “Union Peace Conference,” nothing about the 21^st Panglong Conference.

(I thought later that maybe we’re just being human beings to have different and opposing interpretations of a dogma all have agreed upon. Just take a look at Communism’s “dogmatists” and “revisionists,” Islam’s “Sunni” and “Shia,” Buddhism’s “Theravada” and “Mahayana,” Christianity’s “Roman Catholic” and “Protestant,” and so on. Examples seem to be endless.)

• One of the results is the increasing distrust among the three main stakeholders: the military suspects the EAOs might join hands together with the NLD against it, while the EAOs suspect the military, being Burmans, may ally itself with the NLD against them
• Still there are others who say the object of forming a 21^st Century Panglong Conference Preparatory Committee is only to invite the non-signatories of the NCA to attend its meetings and have a say in revising the Framework for Political Dialogue (FPD). After they have agreed on the FPD, then they will be invited to sign the NCA before they are allowed to participate in 21^st Century Panglong.
• As for the 3 other non-signatories, the military’s demand is two told:

1. Issue a statement that they have abandoned the armed struggle
2. Have their arms locked stock and barrel on the border under supervision of border authorities concerned

Well, I hope both sides come to a mutually acceptable agreement when they meet next month.