Description:
KEY POINTS:
•
The 21
st
Century Panglong Conference, also known as the Union Peace Conference, has
been hailed as the most encouraging initiative to achieve countrywide peace and political
reform in Myanmar since the Panglong Conference of February 1947. Two ?Panglong-21”
meetings have been held so far. With the National League for Democracy government
prioritising ethnic peace, this is a long-needed moment of opportunity for national
reconciliation that should not be lost.
•
There have been three important advances in the landscape of national politics so far.
First, different points of view could be expressed by a diversity of stakeholders, including
representatives of political parties, the national armed forces (Tatmadaw), ethnic armed
organisations and civil society groups. Second, the revival of such a symbolic platform
raises the potential for the two key processes in national reform ? parliamentary and ethnic
peace ? to be brought together on the same track. Third, there is broad agreement in public
statements on the need for pro-federal reform.
•
Worrying failings, however, are beginning to appear, raising warning spectres from the
country?s troubled past. Dating back to the Panglong Conference in 1947, each new era of
government has witnessed new political initiatives to foster national peace, and all have
been unsuccessful. This must not happen again.
•
Amidst urgent concerns: there is a lack of inclusion in the present peace process; Tatmadaw
domination still continues; there is an over-reliance on the inconclusive Nationwide
Ceasefire Agreement of ex-President Thein Sein; land-grabbing, natural resource
exploitation and economic opportunism remain widespread; and military-first solutions
are still being pursued in several parts of the country. Meanwhile civilian displacement
and humanitarian suffering have not ended, highlighted by continuing emergencies in the
Kachin, Rakhine and Shan States.
•
The international response to Myanmar?s ethnic challenges is divided. Western governments
have backed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement as the road to peace; the NLD-led
administration has reduced cooperation with United Nations? mediation; and China is
seeking to take on the leading international role. Concerned by instability along its border,
China recognises that a majority of ethnic armed organisations have been marginalised
in the peace process to date. But, with major geo-political ambitions of its own, China?s
involvement is only adding to uncertainties about Myanmar?s future direction.
•
A window of opportunity still remains. But, for genuine peace and national reform to be
achieved, the 21
st
Century Panglong must deliver a political destination of hope that includes
all peoples rather than another cycle of failure in the country?s history of ethnic conflict.
In one of the most ethnically-diverse countries in Asia, the present crises in Myanmar?s
borderlands are not exceptions but long-standing examples of failures that lie at the heart
of the modern-day state."
Source/publisher:
Transnational Institute (TNI)
Date of Publication:
2017-09-21
Date of entry:
2017-10-05
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Language:
English
Local URL:
Format:
pdf
Size:
1 MB