From adversaries to partners in peace By Aung Naing Oo | Sunday, 23 March 2014 The Myanmar Times Peace negotiations in Myanmar have come to a critical period. They are critical because the March 9-10 meeting between the government and the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) of ethnic armed groups at Myanmar Peace Center made significant progress. Now we are one step closer to signing a Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA). Personally, the negotiations have also become very interesting for me in the sense that they have made the transformation from being adversarial to collaborative. The talks in many ways have become the integrative form of “dialogue” I dreamed of many years ago. This bodes well for the Myanmar peace process. But the road to a possible NCA has been difficult. By August 2012, the government had signed preliminary armistices with 14 out of 16 ethnic armed groups but the skirmishes continued. It became clear to leaders from all sides that preliminary ceasefires were not enough; they needed to be strengthened. Thus we began a journey into signing a nationwide truce. The idea was twofold; it was to bring about mechanisms to stop the fighting once and for all and to prevent truce violations. It was also very clear to all leaders that the continued hostilities would have adverse effects on the long-awaited political dialogue. But the ultimate goal, a nationwide ceasefire, has been elusive. The government has supported two meetings of ethnic armed groups, in Laiza and Law Khee Lar, in the hope of finding a solution to Myanmar’s problems together with its ethnic brethren. Unfortunately, the multiplicity of groups, lack of trust, security concerns and array of other issues have kept the two sides apart. Additionally, all sides have adopted politically correct “all-inclusive and consensus-seeking” approaches to the negotiation. These are extremely important because no one wants to have to negotiate all over again just because a group or groups had been left out of the process. However, a consequence of this policy is that all groups – be they big or small – have equal influence. If one group is not ready or confident enough to come on board then the negotiation is unlikely to result in an agreement. Frustrations still abound on all sides. But the potential outcome is significant. All stakeholders have little choice but to be patient and persevere, so that everyone is included in the agreement. It has led to several ceasefire drafts being developed by different parties. The government side has had inputs from the armed forces, presidential advisers and parliamentary representatives. The ethnic groups have met over and over again to come up with a unified position. The MPC’s technical team has met all NCCT leaders both formally and informally to discuss the agreement. All these drafts were circulated, compared and debated. It was becoming a never-ending saga. What became clear is that the winding road to the nationwide ceasefire agreement must start with a single and unified text. Therefore, before the last meeting the government hoped it could persuade the ethnic groups to work on a single draft. The NCCT side may have had similar thoughts, for an agreement was quickly reached. A drafting committee comprising an equal number of representatives will be formed to carry out the drafting process. It was an enormous step forward. There were also additional advances toward the agreement. For the first time in the two-and-a-half years of working toward an agreement the armed forces were highly represented in the March 9-10 meetings. Previously, two lieutenant generals along with regional commanders participated in negotiations. This time around there were no less than four lieutenant generals and a major general negotiating with their ethnic counterparts. These four lieutenant generals hold very senior positions – only the three highest-ranking officers in the armed forces are above them. This very high level of representation demonstrated the desire for and commitment to peace by the entire government delegation, including the armed forces. But more crucially, it emerged during the meetings that the government wants to sign the agreement before August. Whether this is realistic I cannot tell but previous attempts to set a deadline on the ceasefire agreement had failed. These negotiations had dragged on – there was no sense of urgency. Thanks to their initiative and the agreement to work on a single text, we now have a more realistic deadline we can work toward. It is testament to the fact that armed forces are central to peace negotiations. Of late, I have noticed that the pattern of negotiations between the government and armed ethnic groups has changed. They have become increasingly frank. Sometimes the exchanges are so open that I have goosebumps watching negotiations unfold. The March 9-10 meeting was the climax of frankness. Now we are in a real dialogue – a shift from an adversarial to collaborative process. This change in the negotiation pattern was unexpected but very welcome. In 2002, I went to give a talk in the Thai border town of Mae Sot. It was about dialogue and I had just published a book called Dialogue. Opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had also recently called for dialogue with the military regime. Many exiles and ethnic leaders showed up at the talks, including the late Karen National Union leader General Saw Bo Mya. They wanted to understand what I meant by “dialogue”. I said that dialogue is a tool to resolve conflict by exploring possible solutions to the problem together with other protagonists and then acting together on these solutions. At the end of the talk, General Bo Mya said it was impossible to have dialogue in Myanmar. Indeed, General Bo Mya was right at the time. But 12 years on, something that once appeared impossible may become a reality. Unlike the situation many years ago, we have now entered into a first phase of exploring solutions. From now on, the path to peace should be smoother. Aung Naing Oo is associate director of the Peace Dialogue Program at the Myanmar Peace Center. Lieutenant General Myint Soe speaks to the media at the conclusion of talks in Yangon on March 10. (Thiri Lu/The Myanmar Times)
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 10:21:05 +0000
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