Assailed verbally from left and right, Harn Yawnghwe, the youngest son of the first President of independent Burma and Director of the Brussels-based fund raising agency for Burma’s activists, kept his cool throughout the first day of the Euro-Burma Office (EBO) annual consultation meeting held on the Thai border province of Chiangmai to clear his controversial stand on the general elections planned by Burma’s universally hated military regime.
While conceding the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the regime calls itself “will not negotiate or make concessions if it will affect its grip on power”
- “SPDC constitution drafting process (1993-2008) was not inclusive”
- “SPDC elections will likely not be free and fair”
- “SPDC constitution does not meet the aspiration of the people of Burma”
- “The 1990 election-winning party and non-ceasefire groups are not involved in the election process”
“All stakeholders (need) to accept that the circumstances of many groups are different and they need different strategies,” he told the more than 80 participants of the two-day gathering, from December 1 to 2.
For the opposition in general including the non-ceasefire groups like the National Democratic Front (NDF), Karenni National Progress Party (KNPP) and the Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’, they “are not included in the process and it would be strange for them to support” the elections. “But circumstances are different with the people inside,” he said. “They cannot avoid casting votes. If they don’t have their own candidates, then they will have to choose the SPDC candidates. Or they could set up their own parties, hoping some of their candidates will win some seats.”
Veteran politicians like Shwe Ohn, who was under house arrest in Taunggyi for a year following his holding of the Shan State Day ceremony on 7 February 2005, have in fact been urging people in Shan State to form their own parties to contest the elections. “Something is better than nothing,” he was reported to have said.
Harn Yawnghwe, meanwhile, took pains to explain that it was not his policy to call on the people to found parties and run their own candidates. “It’s up to each locality to decide for itself,” he said. “It is not just a question of opportunity or survival. Everything depends on planning.”
Harn also made it clear the EBO will encourage continued dialogue between Naypyitaw and the ceasefire armies that have been butting heads with each other since the latter was ordered to become Border Guard Forces (BGFs) controlled by the Burmese Army officers in April. “It’s not the resistance armies that will suffer if fighting resumes,” he reasoned. “It is always the people who suffer, because when there is war, the Burmese Army always pick on the people, not the resistance. Dialogue is the only way to avoid this eventuality.”
He, however, acknowledged on the sidelines that controversy surrounding the EBO stand is likely to continue. “What is important,” a participant sympathetic to Harn said, “is we don’t get into this SPDC way of thinking among ourselves: If you are not with me, you are against me.”
The EBO, set up in 1999 with the aim “to contribute to peaceful and sustainable transition to democracy in Burma,” has been providing core support to coordinating bodies in the democracy movement including youth, women and ethnic nationalities. It is “almost entirely funded by public (government funds),” according to its flyer. Its funders include the European Commission, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
Apart from its currently successful National Reconciliation Programme (NRP), it is planning to run two more ambitious programmes on the issues of Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
