REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE - Bringing people together in transition
December 2, 2015
Report from the Conference
Opening remarks by H.E Mr. Olivier Richard, Ambassador of France in Myanmar
Morning roundtables atJasmine Meeting Hall
1st Roundtable Know-how transfer from the Diaspora
2nd Roundtable Yangon’s Urban Development
3rd Roundtable Tradition & Modernity
Morning roundtables at Empress Hall
1st Roundtable Future of the Media
2nd Roundtable Role of Parliament
3rd Roundtable Property Law
Afternoon roundtables at Empress Hall
1st Roundtable Feedback from Civil society organizations
Final Roundtable “What challenges for the transition after the elections?”
Acknowledgments
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REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE - Bringing people together in transition
December 2, 2015
Opening remarks by His Excellency
Mr. Olivier Richard,
Ambassador of France in Myanmar
© Yves Marry/Chloe Baills
Since 2010, many reforms have been engaged by the former government, the markets are
opening and, since last 8th of November and the general elections, a decisive step toward
democracy has been reached. With history evolving right in front of us, we thought that there was
a need to gather experts and actors of the transition in order to understand what was exactly at
stake, how could we analyze the elections and its outcome, and what could we expect from the
opening period.
The 2nd December 2015 Conference was an opportunity to share knowledge by gathering
35 speakers, all well known in their area of expertise, and to identify the key challenges for the
country’s transition after those generally praised elections.
As the democratization process has always been a priority for the French diplomacy in
Myanmar, with a specific strategy of supporting local civil society organizations throughout
different electoral assistance programs, more than 15 civil society organizations told how they
experienced the elections and what they expected from now on.
Furthermore, the French Institute is currently supporting the scientific debate and French
researchers working on Myanmar, through a financial support from The French Institute in Paris.
Myanmar and international researchers in social sciences as well as journalists and experts could
thus be involved in participating to a series of workshops, which gave rise to 6 roundtables during
the conference.
Thanks to this conference, we hope that a fruitful dialogue between different parts of
society has been strengthened as one more step towards “Bringing people together in transition”.
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REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE - Bringing people together in transition
December 2, 2015
Report from the Conference:
Morning roundtables atJasmine Meeting Hall
© Yves Marry/Chloe Baills
1st Roundtable: Know-how transfer from the Diaspora
Speakers:
-
Dr. Kerstin Duell, Yangon-based political analyst
Daw Ruth Hla Hla Myo, Executive Committee Member of the Myanmar Women
Entrepreneur’s Association
U Tim Aye-Hardy, Co-founder and Executive Director of myME project
Moderator: Daw Thin Lei Win, Chief Correspondent of Myanmar Now
REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE
Dr Kerstin Duell started by defining the concept of Diaspora as a shared identity and
cultural practices that unite people living dispersed in transnational spaces. Compared to ‘classic’
diasporas (for instance Jewish, Armenian), the Burmese Diaspora is quite large and includes (1)
well-established professionals and citizens in industrialized host countries, (2) refugees living in
official camps in Thailand or settlements in India, Bangladesh and Malaysia some of whom are
registered with UNHCR, (3) unskilled and semi-skilled, often illegal migrants working in the region,
and (4) political exiles falling into the first two categories. According to her, the returns started in
2011 when U Thein Sein verbally invited the skilled Diaspora to play part in the “new economy” but
without any guarantees for returnees, least amnesties for political exiles. She highlighted that
returnees currently contribute to economic development, overall capacity-building and conflictresolution but regretted, however, that they experienced resistance, distrust and, at times, jealousy
from “locals” who never lived abroad.
Daw Ruth Hla Hla Myo introduced the MWEA, a non-government, non-profit, non-political
and non-religious association, founded in 1995, to unite Myanmar women entrepreneurs and
support their skills and leadership abilities. After attending the Japan JDS’s scholarship, she has
been able, with other repatriates, to transfer that new know-how to the organization, by
conducting seminars about women entrepreneur’s development. The main challenges for
entrepreneur’s women that she pointed out after returning are mostly concerning the high rate of
dropping out in Myanmar, as well as a quite antagonistic environment for women.
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December 2, 2015
U Tim Aye-Hardy presented myME Project that provide non-formal education and
vocational training via mobile classrooms to underprivileged Burmese working children compelled
into indentured servitude at teashop restaurants. This idea came after his return while he decided
to reconnect with old friends in a tea shop. He realized that children are forced to work long hours
every day in order to sustain their families in rural areas. Based on the 2014 Census Data, 38.9% of
youth population (from 5 to 18) is indeed “out-of-school”, child labor being still culturally accepted
in Myanmar. He stressed that education is a critical step toward alleviating poverty that is why his
project aims at develop critical thinking skills and participate to country’s development.
Nevertheless, he observed a reverse cultural shock between repatriates and those who stayed
behind.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
A question has been raised about the gap that returnees need to bridge with those who
stayed in Myanmar and how they live with their returnee’s identity. Tim Aye-Hardy’ expectations
from abroad were very different of what he rediscovered after his return. He highlighted the
difficulty to reconnect with people and former rules. He has been frustrated to see the lack of
proper education, experience and ability to think by coming back in Myanmar that has been
confined for a long time. His project aspires to reverse this scheme in which people stop thinking
and planning because they have been adapting to the situation.
© Yves Marry/Chloe Baills
2nd Roundtable: Yangon’s Urban Development
Speakers:
-
Mr. Eben Forbes, Independent Researcher and Consultant
Dr. Kyaw Lat, Urban Advisor at Yangon City Development Committee
Mr. Michael Slingsby, Urban Poverty Adviser at YCDC and Save The Children
Moderator: U Zaw Htike, Trainer at Myanmar Journalism Institute
REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE
Mr. Eben Forbes introduced his field research conducted in several townships about
Yangon‘s informal settlers. He observed the effect on residents when they are “cleared” from the
centre and have to relocate to the periphery, as well as the destination of newly arrived migrants
from rural areas. He was also wondering how the cycle of squatting and evictions can be
assuaged, and if there was an optimal distribution of low income settlements in Yangon. From this
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REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE - Bringing people together in transition
December 2, 2015
ground work, inner city seemed better for informal settlers, owing to greater transportation options
and (pirated) accesses to water and electricity. The few squatters would therefore have a
government’s amnesty and legal leases to remain in the central city. Thus, mixed incomes in both
the centre and periphery could coexist rather than creating poor areas along the urban fringe. He
concluded that authorities need to be aware of rational squatters’ logic and could consider
working with NGO partners to give priority to human alternatives in relation to evictions.
Dr. Kyaw Lat started by highlighting the main issues and challenges of Yangon’s
urbanization that is firstly the “discrepancies and contradictions” of housing sector, which requires
30.000 units yearly whereas around 10.000 units were constructed between 2009 and 2014.
Consequently, land price and real-estate speculation are increasing. He pointed out the lack of
infrastructural provision, especially in the water supply. Another challenge would obviously be to
reduce the road traffic congestion and develop transportation services. According to him,
“unequal distribution of job places” is the main reason of traffic jams, the vast majority of
employment being in inner city. Rail system and Bus Rapid Transport in order to manage an
integrated traffic management system should be improved. He also explained the introduction of
zoning regulations in the city to preserve old historical buildings. As the expansion of Yangon is
inevitable, he finally asked for more coordination between foreign cooperation and YCDC, as well
as skilled man-power.
Mr. Michael Slingsby reminded that 40% of Yangon’s population is very poor and
vulnerable. These conditions are worse than in many other Asian cities due to the fact that there
has been no support to urban poor areas for the past 40 years. If about 52,000 plots of the
resettlement of squatters were developed in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, these ones lacked
adequate drainage and water supply and sanitation was not provided. By referring to a survey led
by Save the Children with YCDC, he pointed out multiple diseases related to sanitation and living
conditions that were observed in these poor households. Furthermore, around 80% of the
households had to borrow money from money lenders with a 20% rate of interest per month
upwards, without any ability to absorb shocks especially health spending. Consequently, 40% of
the children are not attending school due to financial reasons. He concluded by adding that
between one third and half of the surveyed families are spending under 500 Kyat per person per
day on food.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
A question was asked about regional and national urbanization’s scales and how the
urban policies of other cities in Myanmar will be planned. For Dr. Kyaw Lat, the national solution for
urban areas should be industrialization, arguing that squatters and poor population were pushed
away from cities because of unemployment. If providing jobs to population is the main challenge
for economic growth in Yangon, it will be difficult to settle this issue. Indeed, most of the industrial
lands belong to cronies who used corruption for 40 years to buy inexpensive plots to the
government. He pointed out that repurchasing these lands would be unaffordable.
3rd Roundtable: Tradition & Modernity
Speakers:
-
Dr. Aurore Candier, Historian with the Centre Asie du Sud-Est (CASE-CNRS)
Dr. Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière, Anthropologist with IRASEC & CNRS
Dr. Patrick McCormick, Historian and Head of Yangon Office of EFEO
Moderator: Daw May Thingyan Hein, Chief Executive Officer of Mythmaka News Agency
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REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE - Bringing people together in transition
December 2, 2015
REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE
Dr. Aurore Candier introduced how reconsidering Tradition and Modernity in Burmese
conceptual history, in particular through the effect of circulation of knowledge and intellectual
exchanges between Burmese ruling elites and foreign ideas, accelerated in 17th Century. She
stressed that those phenomena of cultural opening mostly coincided with periods of political
instability and multicultural environment. They participated in shaping the Burmese universe of
thoughts and in opening concepts. She then explained how the concept of reform became a
twofold concept in the 1870s, combining its traditional and modern forms that firstly meant
restoring a pristine order of things and secondly improving in order to modernize. Then started the
transition from an ancient to a modern regime of historicity. She concluded by saying that the
reform process of the new government would determine whether the regime of historicity has
entered a “late-modern” stage in the 2010s: a representation of the world and time where the
pristine past would not be the standard norm and where fear of the future would have less impact
on society and politics.
Dr. Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière started its presentation about Tradition and Modernity in
the religious field by asking: “What does the political transition in Myanmar do to the religious field
as a process of modernity?” The political transition has indeed seen an amplification of Buddhist
collective practices in the public space in parallel with the rise of nationalist Buddhism under the
form of Ma Ba Tha. Controversies between Ma Ba Tha and NLD exemplified how the religious
activism may encroach on the political sphere. She also reminded that if Buddhism as a distinctive
religion can be perceived as constitutive of religious identity, pervasive negotiations persist in the
Burmese religious field about what is a part of religion or not. Burmese religion is actually an open
field, composed of mainstream Buddhism, esoteric Buddhism (weikza and exorcistic cults) and spirit
worship (cult to the Thirty-seven Nat). However, spirit worship has been the target of renewed critics
and attacks for few years, being considered rather as a tradition or at time an embarrassing
backwardness in the political transition context.
Dr. Patrick McCormick gave a presentation focused on the use of English among speakers
of Burmese when speaking to each other. English is a language of authority introduced by the
British, and is one way to establish one's educational and social status. In many people's minds, it
appears that English is the language of modernity, modern life, and "modern" institutions. English is
seen as the language of intellectual discourse and a more "official" language than Burmese.
People "code mix," or add English words to their conversation in order to establish their education,
status, and their aspirations to being an educated, high-status person. While speakers may use
English words for genuinely new concepts for which no established Burmese word yet exists, it is
actually common-use words which are most often said in English, including dates, numbers, days of
the week. People may also translate Burmese into English as a way to give greater weight to their
speech act by connecting it up to some larger, outside, international discussion. Often people who
are unfamiliar with English are considered uneducated and may believe it is their own fault for not
understanding the language. In this respect, the use of English can be seen as disempowering
certain parts of the population. Among some speakers of minority languages, such as Shan or Mon,
Burmese vies with English in a similar fashion.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
A question was raised about how the young people can deal with both tradition and
modernity in Myanmar. Dr. Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière just commented that even if spiritual shift
can seem traditional, a widespread practice among youth has been observed. Mediums are often
from modernist circles, she added, talking about engineers who had this vocation. Regarding the
place of Burmese language in the academic field, Dr. Patrick McCormick highlighted that
Myanmar will become a rich and developed country in the future and that, then, people would
be prouder of their cultural identity and language.
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REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE - Bringing people together in transition
December 2, 2015
Report from the Conference:
Morning roundtables at Empress Hall
© Yves Marry/Chloe Baills
1st Roundtable: Future of the Media
Speakers:
-
Daw May Thingyan Hein, Chief Executive Officer of Mythmaka News Agency
U Khin Maung Win, Deputy Director of Democratic Voice of Burma
Mr. Eric Glover, Project Manager at Canal France International
U Sein Win, Training Director of Myanmar Journalism Institute
Moderator: U Than Win Htut, Presenter and Planning Editor for Democratic Voice of Burma
REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE
Daw May Thingyan Hein highlighted the fact that one of the main challenges for media in
the transition is the lack of opportunities for women journalists to participate in media, especially in
leading roles. A deep change in the society has to be carried out in order for journalism to be
recognized as suitable for women. If Myanmar media do not want to be “male dominated”, key
stakeholders should discuss on how women could be involved more deeply in the future.
U Khin Maung Win reminded that the obvious changes in the media landscape since 2010
should not conceal the new threats and challenges for the future. The printing and publisher
enterprise law, the News Media law, the Public Service Media law and the Service Broadcasting
law are covering the whole media sector, still threatening the quality of independent information.
In addition, government-run newspapers dominate the market by using all government
infrastructures, which prevents private newspapers to develop a sustainable financial system. He
recommended that government should not be a player and referee at the same time, and that
rules should apply for every media agency equally.
Mr. Eric Glover illustrated 4 facets of the media sector -communication, capacity, market
and editorial responsibility- that should be improved in the future. First, infrastructures and technical
requirements, he insisted, are as important as the need for qualified journalists; otherwise
newspapers’ communication or circulation would never be viable. Journalists as lecturers should
keep trying to understand the media’s role and limits through education, considering that there
cannot be press freedom without them. Therefore, more training for journalists in newsrooms is
needed. Sustainable media are based on a better understanding of the market, analysis and tools
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REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE - Bringing people together in transition
December 2, 2015
that should be created to interpret the behaviors of readers and announcers. Finally, he pointed
out some points of responsible journalism that should accept critical views and provide decent
wages, without being swayed by the advertisement pressure.
U Sein Win started by saying that Myanmar's media have turned new pages, having
greater media freedom after the abolition of the pre-censorship system in 2012. But there are also
new challenges. Despite the reappearance of private-owned newspapers, some disappeared
while all current dailies are subjected to revenue losses. Self-censorship tendencies among
Myanmar journalism are still persistent, and most are ultra-cautious against harming national
security to avoid law suits. “Training” is the key to improve journalism standards but there is need of
neat-assessment for a number of media that cannot afford training budget while the salary scale
of normal journalists is around 80 to 120 $ a month for 6 to 7 days of work per week, he concluded.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
A first question was raised about the economic point of view on the media business and
whether the international investment connected to the media could create “benefits” in the
future. U Sein Win argued that foreign investments mainly focused on online media already
increased the sector’s benefits. For television and radio, as there is no real legislation, the investors
may be waiting for the appropriate time.
Another question has been asked about the market as far as State-owned media are
concerned: compared to western countries, the government takes part in the market through
state-owned media. Thus, should Myanmar legislate to obtain fair competition? Regarding media
regulation, U Khin Maung Win emphasized that service broadcasting was not operated by the
government in neighboring countries, arguing that a public authority should never use the
commercial service.
Final comments were made on the women issues and the journalists’ capacity-building.
First women journalists should not focus on women rights or they would obviously become women
journalists for women while they could broaden their knowledge in political, economic and social
areas in order to have a real place in the media field. Then, the junior journalists used to say that
they could not set up their capacity-building because their seniors did not allow them to improve
their skills arguing that there was a lot to do in the office. Daw May Thingyan Hein underlined that
“being able to write on women issues” was an answer she heard from women she interviewed. She
pointed out that women must go further by writing on gender issue and equality between men
and women. “How much production on gender issue in television and radio?” she finally asked.
Not even 10%, in her opinion.
© Yves Marry/Chloe Baills
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REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE - Bringing people together in transition
December 2, 2015
2nd Roundtable: Role of Parliament
Speakers:
-
Mr. Remi Nguyen, Ph.D Candidate in Law at CNRS-IRASEC-CREDIMI
Dr. Renaud Egreteau, Research Fellow at Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars
Dr. Rick Nuccio, Country Director at National Democratic Institute
Moderator: U Myint Kyaw, Member of the Myanmar Journalist Network and the Press Council
REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE
Mr. Remi Nguyen reminded that the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Union Assembly) is a bicameral
body made up of the Pyithu Hluttaw (House of Representatives or Lower House) and the Amyotha
Hluttaw (House of Nationalities or Upper House), enacting laws for the entire or any part of the
Union. Nevertheless, the Constitution of 2008 shall prevail including through a Constitutional Tribunal
that has to vet whether the laws promulgated is in conformity with the Constitution or not. Some
provisions of the latter can only be amended by a vote of more than 75% of all the representatives
of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw. As army representatives will make up 25% of the total number of
representatives, negotiation is thus the main way of amending some parts of the Constitution. He
concluded by stating that, in the legal history of Myanmar, a great debate already took place to
know which source of law prevails between the customary law/common law and the law enacted
by Parliament. As a law is necessary for modernization, it will take on a more important role during
this new era, such as MPs.
Dr. Renaud Egreteau underlined that as in all the comparative studies of non democratic
regimes, the legislatives bodies carry a crucial role in early years of transitions by expanding
political participation. He then introduced the 4 core functions that Parliament is supposed to
perform in any democratic regime: (1) represent the people, (2) produce or revise legislations, (3)
check what the executive and judiciary branches are doing, (4) serve the constituents. For the
past four years, the Union Parliament has accomplished much more than initially expected. In
addition, intense popular representation might be introduced after the November 8th elections.
The success of this renewal is a consequence of legislators’ activism as well as committed civil
society which has given inputs to the Parliament. Despite what has been observed in all of postauthoritarian transitions, after euphoria, there is often a repressive phase with pursuing of
condemnations and jailing penalties. He pointed out that the new Parliament in Myanmar had
rediscovered legislative affairs. The main challenge of the next legislature would be to move from
an influential policy institution to a policy making institution.
Dr. Richard Nuccio started by explaining one of the key roles of National Democratic
Institute during the last three years, namely providing technical support to all the parties in the
legislature in Naypyidaw. After the November 8th elections, the vast majority of the former MPs will
disappear from the political life in Parliament. Only 14% of the incumbent MPs have been
reelected to the Pyithu Hluttaw (45/323), 9% to the Amyotha Hluttaw (15/168). In total 12% were
reelected in the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (60/491). In his view, it should be necessary to take advantage
from those who were involved in legislative experience, especially to advocate for specific policies
and this, despite their former political involvement, he said talking about the former MPs.
Furthermore, this massive turn-over in the legislative body must be seen as a good way to increase
the limited involvement of international actors with all the institutions of Myanmar, not just with the
legislature branch but also with the judiciary and executive branches. He added that as
incumbent MPs with experience have been moved from the Parliament to State and Region level
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REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE - Bringing people together in transition
December 2, 2015
to occupy functions of Chief Ministers or ministers, the new government would have a very steep
learning curve in order to meet the high expectations of the voting public and to form a broad
coalition government.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Dr. Renaud Egreteau was questioned on how the “other branches” (executive and
judiciary) of the political system could be changed. According to him, one should look at the
opposition: “Opposition might come first from the military block in the incoming government. Then,
an opposition would come from outside of the government and from outside of the institutions: the
civil society has to check and scrutinize what the Parliament or the government or the justice
system are doing or not (…) Opposition will come from this bottom-up if censorship is not coming
back”.
To the panel: “What do you think of the role of the international community in supporting
the legislative and the executive branch?” Dr. Richard Nuccio would expect an increase of
significant investments from western democratic countries, now that the government is practically
accepted in comparaison to the 2010 government. “It will depend if the NLD invites the foreign
governments to be involved in this process”, he said. Dr. Renaud Egreteau asked for more
coordination of the international community, regretting that “what we see outside, it’s a
competition of international actors here… to be the first, to donate, to assist”.
From the room, a concern was raised about the ethnic minorities and how the new
government could provide them with a better representation. Dr. Richard Nuccio noticed that all
this depended on how the NLD wanted to help the others but he encouraged all the parties to
work towards reconciliation and all the civil society to welcome the former MPs to play a positive
public role in Myanmar. Dr. Renaud Egreteau then mentioned that there was “a life outside of the
Parliament”, calling the ethnic minorities to organize themselves in the civil sphere.
Final questions were asked about how the NDI would advocate the new period, if there
was any list of priority points suggested by NDI and how civil society and media were supposed to
criticize the new government. Dr. Richard Nuccio mentioned a previous situation in South Sudan,
where there were 44 priorities. “When you have 44 priorities, you don’t have priorities anymore and
unfortunately Myanmar is in this position”, he said. He also explained that, in a case of top-down
political transition, it would be rather difficult to reach the stakeholders inside the government and
thus, to achieve the priorities needed by Myanmar people. He finally questioned the room: the
Diaspora that was afraid to lose its independence by working with former government, these CSOs
linked to the NLD, will they continue to criticize the government and maintain their opposition or will
they say what the government wants to hear?
© Yves Marry/Chloe Baills
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3rd Roundtable: Property Law
Speakers:
-
U Tin Lin Aung, Chairman of Green Peasant Institute
Mr. Martin Michalon, Ph.D Candidate in Geography at EHESS
U Joseph Win, Executive Director of Community Agency for rural Development
Moderator: U Sein Win, Training Director of Myanmar Journalism Institute
REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE
U Tin Lin Aung as a chairman of the Green Peasant Institute, a network of more than 2 700
farmers based in the Irrawaddy division and working on farmer’s rights protection and land
property issues, reminded that the system of property was very intricate, mixing multiple coexisting
laws called “Act” before 1962 and “Law” beyond that date. As U Thein Sein’s government
launched reforms on property laws “for the sake of rural development”, he highlighted that it
would be very interesting to observe how the new government, led by the NLD, would enact new
laws in connection with the existing property laws and how these would provide a better
protection to the farmers and the rural areas.
Mr. Martin Michalon explained how the tourism growth created new spatial configurations
and raised new land-related issues and conflicts, thanks to the examples of Nyaungshwe urban
sprawl and of the Inle Hotel Zone. He emphasized that the region had been deeply transformed by
the massive increase of foreign visitors, resulting in a vast change of the landscape. This area is also
a symbol of the new tourism environment. However, the project, launched in 2012, has barely
started, mainly because of the investors' hesitations in a pre-electoral period and because of
tensions with local farmers. Despite these, the farmers seem inflexible on their demands for better
compensations. Such a strong stance against the authorities may be linked to a relative freedom
of speech in this touristic and well-known area where farmers can voice out their demands more
safely.
Mr. Joseph Win started by quoting St Thomas Aquinas in reference to land as a property:
“Law is an ordinance of reason for common good”. He regretted that the last government did not
recognize the customary law, especially in the ethnic regions, arguing that, during the last 25 years,
property law in Myanmar was not “ordinance of conscience but ordinance of dictatorship”.
According to him, the property law should promote the nationwide reconciliation and common
good, instead of going to the investors, who are in league with the brokers for selling the lands. The
challenge of the new government would be not to respond to farmers by violence.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
A question has been raised about amending the property law. For Mr. Joseph Win, the
2008’s constitution has to be amended in order to recognize the popular right to private property.
Mr. Martin Michalon just commented that state projects, in Inle region, symbolize an old-style, topdown way of thinking the political action and dialogue, and that it may be interesting to consider if
the next government could shift to a more locally-based mode of action.
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REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE - Bringing people together in transition
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Report from the Conference:
Afternoon roundtables at Empress Hall
© Yves Marry/Chloe Baills
1st Roundtable: Feedback from Civil society organizations, key
stakeholders of the elections, future actors of the transition
Speakers:
-
Daw Tin Mar Oo, Executive Director of Generation Tree
U Nay Lin Soe, Executive Director of Myanmar Centre for Inclusive Development (MCID)
U Thet Swe Win, Director of the Centre for Youth and Social Harmony (CYSH)
Daw Zin Mar Oo, Executive Director of Myanmar Network for Free and Fair Elections
(MYNFREL)
U Tin Lin Aung, Chairman of Green Peasant Institute (GPI)
Daw Ei Ei Moe, Programme Coordinator for Generation Wave
Mr. Thomas Mungdan, Executive Director of Humanity Institute
Moderator: Mr. Yves Marry, Consultant on election support Programme for the Embassy of France
REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE
Each of the speakers introduced for about 10 minutes their organization and their project related
to the elections, funded by the French Embassy in the frame of its electoral assistance programme.
Daw Tin Mar Oo, Generation Tree:
-
-
Generation Tree has been created in 2015 by a group of women’s rights and interfaith
dialogue activists, willing to promote civic rights amongst women and ethnic minorities.
In the preparation of the elections, they conducted a voter education program in the
Mandalay division and in the Shan and Mon states, with cascading trainings and a strong
focus on women and ethnic minority inclusion.
A 5 minutes’ report made by Mr. Charles-Henry Dupoizat, freelance journalist based in
Yangon, was displayed to show how the actual training did look like as well as the
questions of the participants and the difficulties faced on the ground… Here is a link to the
clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkcR7fU1mhE&feature=youtu.be.
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REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE - Bringing people together in transition
December 2, 2015
U Nay Lin Soe, from MCID:
-
-
MCID has been created in 2014 to advocate in favor of disabled people’s rights. This is one
of the main civil society organization’s voices for this advocacy toward Myanmar
authorities.
During the elections, MCID carried out a study on disabled people's rights and constraints
regarding the electoral process (July to September), a training program for specific voter
education toward disabled people (September) and an advocacy program toward
decision makers, including a video clip (October to January 2016).
U Thet Swe Win, from CYSH:
-
-
CYSH was founded in 2013 by young civil society leaders in order to promote democracy
and “unity in diversity”, via advocacy and civic education. They are running a long term
program called “One people, one Myanmar”, aiming at sensitizing young generation on
civic education throughout a large number of activities (workshops, campaigns, etc.)
With the support of the French Embassy, CYSH launched a mobile application called “I
Myanmar Citizen” dedicated to civic education including the geography and the history
of Myanmar; a citizenship quiz; the Constitution; and an application to interact with MPs.
Daw Zin Mar Oo, from MYNFREL:
-
-
MYNFREL has been founded in 2010 to observe the elections, and was the only local
organization to do so, along with Myanmar Egress. For the 2015 elections, they started a
large scale voter education program at the beginning of the year.
The project funded by the French Embassy is a media monitoring project, aiming at
measuring the objectivity and the bias from the main national media outlets
U Tin Lin Aung, from GPI:
-
GPI, formed in 2012, is a network of more than 2 700 farmers based in the Irrawaddy
division, working on farmer’s rights protection and land property issues.
Before the elections, GPI managed to organize voter education workshops in 20 townships
of the Irrawaddy division, sensitizing voters on their rights and on the principle of political
representatives’ accountability.
Daw Ei Ei Moe, from Generation Wave:
-
Generation Wave was founded in 2007 after the Saffron revolution, by youth activists, and
has been promoting human rights and democracy since then.
During the elections, Generation Wave organized the electoral observation in the Bago
Division, displaying a team of 115 observers, with 50% of women and a strong focus on
women’s inclusion into the electoral process.
Mr. Thomas Mungdan, from Humanity Institute:
-
Based in Myithkina (Kachin State) and founded in 2012, Humanity Institute is not only a
human rights NGO but also a University and a newspaper editor, the Kachin Times.
During the elections, their team monitored the whole process, from voter lists to Election
Dayand organized 4 political debates amongst Kachin politicians.
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REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE - Bringing people together in transition
December 2, 2015
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
After those presentations, a few questions were raised from the room, to CYSH and
MYNFREL about the impacts and the results of their activities. CYSH, at this date, was still in the
promotion of the application, launched one month ago but had already received some positive
feedback. MYNFREL media monitoring report is still being awaited but the bias from government
owned media in favor of the USDP, and the one from independent media in favor of the NLD, is
one of its main conclusion.
A more general question was asked to the panel regarding the role and the challenges of
the CSOs in this new context. U Tin Lin Aung (GPI) answered that the defense of property’s rights
would most probably remain an issue, and that their role would still be needed. Mr. Thomas
Mungdan (Humanity Institute) reminded that war was still going on around Myanmar’s borders with
some ethnic groups. CSO’s role and challenges remain mostly the same in ethnic areas.
© Yves Marry/Chloe Baills
Final roundtable: “What challenges for the transition after the
elections?”
Speakers:
-
Dr. Renaud Egreteau, Research Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars
Dr. Carine Jaquet, Senior Technical Advisor at International Institute for Democracy and
Electoral Assistance (IIDEA)
U Moe Thway, Chairman of National Youth Congress and Generation Wave
U Kyaw Zaw Moe, Executive Director of The Irrawaddy Magazine
Moderator: Mr. Eric Glover, Project Manager at Canal France International (CFI)
REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE
The speakers started by introducing the main challenges that they identified for the opening
period and then debated over questions from the moderator and the floor.
Mr. Egreteau sketched out the context of the transition process at work in the country. The
political transformations, he argues, were initiated “from the top” and from “within”. They have
been painstakingly controlled by the ruling armed forces, in a clear position of strength. This makes
a big difference with other countries also experiencing difficult transitions, but transitions that have
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started from below and through popular revolts, as the Arab Spring illustrates. But if the transition
has been carefully planned in Myanmar, he asks, “what comes next then?”. Now that the 7-step
road map outlined in 2003 has been achieved, there is a need for all parties involved, starting with
the NLD and the Tatmadaw, to start thinking about a new road map for moving forward and
consolidating the transition. One could be optimistic only if all stakeholders are gathered around
the table for a broad discussion on where to go, and more importantly, how to live together.
Ms. Jaquet reminded the audience that those elections would be a clear milestone in the
transition process and occurred despite many challenges, one of the main being the lack of trust in
the society, amongst stakeholders – even if some big issues were on the way, such as the strong
nationalist feeling and the exclusion of some citizens from the vote. Ahead lays the challenge of
novelty and uncertainty, with new leaders arising. One open question and important challenge is
the transfer of power, but there is a lack of visibility inherited from the culture of opacity within the
old regime, which makes it hard to say right now in which direction it will go.
U Moe Thway introduced the 3 main challenges that he identified. The first one will be the
“people’s participation”, considered as the key for a peaceful future. Such a priority will require,
amongst other things, an end to the repressing laws and the constant promotion of civic
education. The second challenge is the “public administration”. Even with the transfer of power,
the Home affair ministry will remain in the Army’s hands, which means that the General
Administration Department (GAD) will remain unchanged. At the local level, GAD is the main
public authority in charge. Involving people in decision making can help change things at local
level. The third main challenge would then be the “transitional justice”, as revenge and punishment
shouldn’t be asked for, but justice will need to gain trust from citizen, allow freedom of speech… So
the good balance will need to be found.
U Kyaw Zaw Moe stressed what is for him the key issue in the coming months and years, the
“national reconciliation”. The very strong legitimacy of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi since the elections
opens a window for an effective process of national reconciliation. In this perspective, the concept
of “inclusiveness” should be used with caution, as it has been used previously by the Government
as a way to dilute the legitimacy of the talks, and delay any effective change.
Question on the “capacity”, for a new Government and a new Parliament, to handle the
country’s numerous challenges
U Kyaw Zaw Moe and U Moe Thway both consider that there is no reason to “worry too much” on that
issue, arguing that: First, 2010 elected members had no experience, and the Parliament has been able
to work. Then, people’s expectation is not as high as some analysts expect. On the contrary, people’s
awareness on what is feasible is pretty good. Finally, some trainings will be provided, and – as added by
Dr. Egreteau and Ms. Jaquet- many consultants will be available for help…
The main question, on that matter, seems to be the “how”. How will Daw Aung San Suu Kyi share
power? How will the dialogue between the new Government and the army occur? How will civil
society be associated? On the latest, U Moe Thway adds that the private sector will provide an
unlimited amount of recommendations and advisers to further their own interest. Therefore, the
empowerment and the role of civil society will be very much needed as a balance.
This discussion leads to the question of the models that will be followed by the new
Government
According to Dr. Egreteau, the history of the “Chicago Boys” – in reference to neoliberal thinkers
from Chicago University that had a great influence in South American countries’ transitions -, will
not be repeated here. But a lot of different stakeholders will try to exert their influence. On that
prospect, Ms. Jaquet believes that government of Myanmar will be able to resist foreign influence
because it has a strong capacity to “draw the line”. According to her, a kind of “subtle negotiation
will take place…”
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From the room, some concern is expressed about a potential “hidden agenda”, about the
fact that this very discussion might be too optimistic as it considers as a given fact that the transfer
of power will occur.
U Kyaw Zaw Moe approves on the fact that many amongst the international community are a little
bit “rushing” to express excitement and satisfaction, whereas most of Burmese people remain
cautious, in a kind of “wait and see” position. On the other hand, it is known that Ministries’
administration have been told to prepare the transfer of power. Moreover, U Thein Sein and General
Min Aung Hlaing have shown a smile when they met with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi – the very day of the
Conference -, a smile that U Than Shwe would have never shown. Last, but not least, the freedom
that himself, as an ex-prisoner, is now experiencing, is a living evidence that times have changed…
For U Moe Thway, the agenda is not even “hidden”, as airstrikes have been permanent in Shan
State for the last weeks and as the Constitution is clear on the permanent power of the Army. For
the civil society leader, amending the Constitution remains a priority, should it be through the
Parliament or political dialogue. In case those 2 options don’t work… the only way would then be
the revolution.
Dr. Egreteau, referring to political science, reminds that in every country, power is exerted through
different means. For the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Army), force remains a tool at their disposal…
A question is asked to the Burmese speakers: “when did the transition really start?”
For U Moe Thway, explaining that the change “comes from the Army” is wrong and too often
declared by analysts. According to him, the “change has been taken from them by the people”!
A final question is asked on the youths, and how they should involve in the transition?
For U Moe Thway, youths have to involve themselves, as in Myanmar culture no political space is
spontaneously made for them. This engagement should start now.
Individual conclusions
Dr. Egreteau: “One should not forget that the priority remains the ethnic issue”.
Ms. Jaquet: “This debate shows how trust remains to be built upon, but after those elections, even if
trust building is a big challenge, the faith in actual change might arise”.
U Moe Thway: “It will be important to look at pending concrete cases, such as Myitsone Dam or
Thilawa port, and see if the new government is able to deal properly with those challenges”.
U Kyaw Zaw Moe: “There is a need for strong leadership, right now in Myanmar. Since Bogyoke
Aung San, U Nu was not strong enough, and Ne Win was too strong… Now there is a need for
strong and wise leadership, in a clean government”.
© Yves Marry/Chloe Baills
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Acknowledgments
© Yves Marry/Chloe Baills
The Embassy of France in Myanmar and the French Institute would like to thank all
speakers, moderators, partners and participants of the 2nd December 2015 Conference. We were
delighted to gather high ranking international speakers, local researchers and leaders of local civil
society organizations in order to debate on the current transition. Furthermore, we hope that we
have provided open and fruitful discussions after the 8th November historic polls.
A special thanks to the 35 speakers and journalist moderators without whom none of this
would have been possible. We are very grateful that our long-standing partners were able to
attend and that new partnerships could be established.
We also wish to thank warmly the Centre for Youth and Social Harmony as well as the
student volunteers of the French Institute for their help before and during this event.
Finally, we would like to extend sincere thanks to the staff of the Jasmine Palace Hotel,
which has brightly hosted the conference.
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