The KNU doubtful stance to attend the Poppa meeting and the RCSS quietness on the issue are surely showing a lot of uneasiness on the government-military setup. So much so, that government spokesman Zaw Htay has to make use of the thinly-veiled ultimatum saying that any group unable to attend the talks would be required to justify their absence, “not to us [the government], but to the people”.

One can see the desperateness of the hybrid quasi-civilian clique to show the international community a kind of success regarding the peace process stagnation.

But the stagnation is its own doing. Its so-called package deal, “allowance to draft ethnic state constitution in return for non-secession promise” is backfiring. The ruling clique has to accept the reality that the “voluntary union” of 1948 or Union of Burma is dead; and the aftermath of 1962 military coup and nullification of 1947 Panglong Agreement and the 1947 Union of Burma Constitution, the present country we now called Myanmar is just a “forced union” holding together with sheer military occupation and suppression of the ethnic states.

The clique in Naypyitaw should be happy that the Ethnic Armed Organizations are agreeing to rebuild a new federal union and have also vowed for the non-disintegration of it. And as such, there is no logical sense to demand for non-secession of the ethnic nationalities. Besides, it is their birthright to practice their rights of self-determination in anyway they see fit, as was the case prior to the Panglong Agreement in 1947.

Link to the story: Military, civilian and EAO leaders to attend Mount Popa peace talks