<div dir="ltr"><h1 itemprop="headline">Myanmar’s new govt unveils strategy for peace with ethnic groups</h1>
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<div class="">John Draper, Peerasit Kamnuansilpa<br>
Special to The Nation <span>April 1, 2016 1:00 am</span> </div>
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<h2 itemprop="description">Myanmar’s incoming civilian
government this month announced plans to introduce a Ministry for Ethnic
Affairs. The creation of this ministry, together with the appointment
of a Christian vice-president for this Buddhist-majority country, seems
calculated to reduce the number and severity of Myanmar’s ethnic
conflicts. It coincides with a major and related Unicef-backed
initiative to create a Myanmar National Language Policy (NLP).</h2>
Aung San<a href="http://www.nationmultimedia.com/search/?keyword=+Suu+Kyi" class="" target="_blank"> Suu Kyi</a>'s
National League for Democracy won power in November's elections at the
expense of a slew of not just junta but also ethnic minority regional
candidates. The NLD is well aware of this and also of the history of
armed conflict between the Myanmar state and ethnic minorities desiring
more autonomy, such as the Karen. Hence its moves to focus on ethnic
affairs.<br><br>
The response to the planned new ministry has so far been generally
favourable, with Upper House lawmaker Je Yaw Wu, from Kachin state and
representing the National Unity Party, coming out in favour on the
grounds it is crucial for national reconciliation and addresses the
historical lobbying of ethnic lawmakers. Meanwhile, only the most
extreme of Myanmar's ultranationalists have opposed the appointment of
the ethnic Chin Henry Van Thio to the vice-presidency, with the Buddhist
monk-led Patriotic Association of Myanmar not protesting the move.<br><br>
Crucial to the success of an Ethnic Affairs Ministry are likely to be
activities supportive of a plural, federal structure, such as those of
the task force responsible for the Unicef-backed language policy, which
includes a foreign academic as facilitator together with the Myanmar
Civil Society Strengthening Programme (Pyoe Pin); the Nyein (Shalom)
Foundation, a civil peace-building movement; and the Thabyay Education
Foundation. This advocacy coalition is engaged in dialogue with
parliamentarians, Education Ministry officials, and many language and
culture committees associated with diverse ethnic groups.<br><br>
Since 2014, the task force has been operating to develop the Myanmar
NLP in close cooperation with the Education Ministry under Unicef's
"Language, Education and Social Cohesion" initiative. Core legislation
to support the initiative includes the Comprehensive Education Sector
Review to transform Myanmar's education system, announced in 2013, the
2015 version of the National Education Law, and a 2015 Ethnic Rights
Law. Together these provide a nurturing framework for using education
and the mother tongue in peace-building in Myanmar.<br><br><div id="div-gpt-ad-1458203125906-0" style="height:auto;width:auto">
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The Myanmar NLP initiative is a pragmatic attempt to address years of
unresolved questions. It focuses on the national and official language,
international languages and ethnic minority languages, seeking a secure
role for each. While a key aim is to contribute to peace and guarantee
the language rights of all groups, it also fosters national
communication, international economic and diplomatic links, improved
standards of literacy, and equity for communication-disabled children
such as the deaf and visually impaired. This broad focus has widespread
appeal and shows that a language policy can be created to meet
international obligations, promote the national language as a cohesive
factor, overcoming decades of conflict linked to language and culture
differences. This appeals to a wide range of interests including those
concerned with economic and education development and subsequently
enhanced life choices for all Myanmar's citizens.<br><br>
The initiative is labour intensive and oriented towards building peace
through dialogue between erstwhile enemies. It has involved 20
facilitated dialogues nationwide, together with several subsidiary
research projects, multiple direct consultations and site visits,
interviews, observations and professional training workshops. Myanmar
also held the Mandalay Conference in February, bringing together
hundreds of delegates to present papers, participate, and consider the
NLP initiative's consultation, dialogue and specialist input phases. <br><br>
One of the main outputs of the Mandalay conference will be the first
draft of the National Language Policy, which will consist of principles,
policy aims, and implementations plans targeted at the township level,
which will require approval from the Ethnic Affairs Ministry as well as
other government ministries and agencies. The draft is due to be
published later this year, followed by further consultation and dialogue
phases, with the NLP being developed along with bottom-up state
policies in Kayin, Mon and Kachin states. The end result may be a
flagship piece of legislation for the new Ethnic Affairs Ministry. It
may also facilitate moves towards establishing Myanmar as a genuine
federal union complete with revenue sharing along ethnic lines, as first
demanded by the country's ethnic minorities in 1948 when the country
won its independence.<br><br>
The transition to a civilian, democratic government which is determined
to resolve ethnic differences under President Htin Kyaw was recently
welcomed by the Shan State-based Ta'ang National Liberation Army, which
is still in conflict with the Tatmadaw, the Myanmar military, and with
other armed ethnic-based groups, such as the Myanmar National Democratic
Alliance Army and the Arakan Army.<br><br>
These groups see grounds for hope in the fact that<a href="http://www.nationmultimedia.com/search/?keyword=+Suu+Kyi" class="" target="_blank"> Suu Kyi</a>
and the NLD are directly targeting the core reasons behind decades of
conflict within Myanmar by seeking to engage with the country's ethnic
minorities and promoting factors necessary for national socio-political
cohesion - linguistic, cultural and educational human rights. While the
previous government did recognise the plurality of ethnic races that
exist in Myanmar - 135 according to a 1988 ruling - the Tatmadaw
frequently embraced military rather than peace-building resolutions to
Myanmar's internal conflicts. Moreover, the focus on an NLP via the
Mandalay Conference presents a clear breakthrough. According to Bertrand
Bainvel, Unicef representative to Myanmar, "In countries like Myanmar,
promoting and managing the diversity of cultures, ethnicities, languages
and religions, needs thoughtful consideration to society, with the
question of education and language policy at its core."<br><br>
In recognising the centrality of ethnic affairs to socio-political
stability, the incoming Myanmar government is wisely following a path
already trodden by some of its<a href="http://www.nationmultimedia.com/search/?keyword=+Asean+" class="" target="_blank"> Asean </a>neighbours, such as the Philippines and Singapore. It is also setting an example for other<a href="http://www.nationmultimedia.com/search/?keyword=+Asean+" class="" target="_blank"> Asean </a>countries,
such as Thailand, which is yet to address these underlying causes of
conflict despite two years of military government-mandated
"reconciliation".<br><br>
<em>JOHN DRAPER is an analyst and lecturer at the College of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University.</em><br><br>
<em>PEERASIT KAMNUANSILPA, Phd, is founder and former dean of the College of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University.</em><br clear="all"><a href="http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Myanmars-new-govt-unveils-strategy-for-peace-with--30282990.html">http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Myanmars-new-govt-unveils-strategy-for-peace-with--30282990.html</a><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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