Day Ten. Wednesday, 31 August 2016

 Focus on interests, not positions

The Global Negotiator

The opening ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10:00. But at 08:00 we are already there, as there are more than a thousand participants, including honored diplomats from the international community, among which is the

soon-to-be-outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and security is understandably tight.

But nobody, except maybe myself, who always feels out of place in a ceremony, doesn’t seem to mind.

The following are excerpts from the official translation of the speech made by the State Counselor, who (for the first time in my experience, which isn’t much) is reading from a written text:

• The Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) is the first step not only toward peace, but toward the establishment of

  

  the long hoped for democratic federal union.

• Ideological differences between NCA signatories and non-signatories could delay our path to peace. We will strive to bring all under the umbrella of the NCA, which constitutes a common agreement in order to avert misunderstandings and divisions.

  

• We began preparations for today’s conference on 9 May 2016. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the previous government led by former President U Thein Sein .
• We all negotiated to enable the participation of both NCA signatories and non-signatories.
• Many of all ages have had to flee their homes to avoid conflict, and it is long since their hopes have dimmed. They hardly dare to hope any longer. We must not forget their plight.

Listening to her, one inevitable question comes up: What’s the difference between a federal democracy and a democratic federal Union?

The next speaker whose speech is keenly anticipated is Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the Tatmadaw’s Commander-in-Chief. I hope I’ve got the following extracts right:

• The six principles for peace (which include a demand for the ethnic armed movements to adhere to the 2008 constitution written by the Senior General Than Shwe led military junta)
• Armed opposition based on racism and localism is an anathema to democracy
• Our country has been accelerating its program to build up a multiparty democratic system since the completion of the 2010 general elections
• The peace process must be implemented within a short time. If the peace process takes more time than needed, there will be more outside instigation, intervention and manipulation and then this will jeopardize confidence building measures which have already been achieved and there will be more frictions in the process, so I have to suggest that we implement the peace process speedily. (Mizzima translation)

I’m not surprised by his continual reminders of the six principles. At least he had, fooling all confident predictions by some EAO leaders, signed the NCA. Which is what counts.

However, some questions are also in order:

• When he talks about racism, does he imply that the Burman majority that is both the government and the armed forces are not racist? (As the late Chao Tzang Yawnghwe once said: Shan nationalism is only a natural reaction to Burman nationalism)
• Never once in his speech does he mention about a federal democracy (or democratic federal union), but only about a multiparty democracy. Is it just a careless oversight? (We are going to hear more about it during the coming days from his officers.)
• Is he serious about concluding the peace process in a short time which is within 3-5 years, according to one of the resolutions read out at the first Union Peace Conference in January? (One of his officers is to take up on the matter on the last day of the conference, 3 September.)

The following are extracts from other speakers:

• We now have a roadmap toward peace. What we need is another roadmap toward a federal union (Gen Mutu Saypoe)
• A federal union is about coexistence through thick and thin (“cold and heat” are the words he uses). It’s not about secession. (Gen N. Banla)
• This is a historic occasion……which recalls the spirit of the original Panglong Conference convened in 1947 by General Aung San, the Father of Modern Burma.

The United Nations will remain your respectful partner as this process (toward reform, peace and stability) deepens. (UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon)

 Reading through this, one may not fail to notice that the UN chief had mistaken the father of the State Counselor as the convener of the 1947 Panglong. But, I guess, he being an outsider, we should be magnanimous about it.

A flurry of other meetings come in the wake of the ceremony, with which I won’t bother the reader.

I will just end today’s journal with comments from some delegates whom I speak to when I get back to our lodgings late in the evening.

• Poorer management compared to the January conference.
• It should be the President, not the State Counselor, who should open the Conference. And he, not she, should be hosting the dinner party.

I’m also informed there will be altogether 76 presentations, each lasting no more than 10 minutes:

1 September   33        presentations

2 September   33        Presentations

3 September   10        presentations

So let’s see what awaits tomorrow.