General Yawd Serk Interim Team Leader of the Peace Process Steering Team (PPST) noted in his opening speech at the PPST meeting held on October 10, 2019, that the 2020 national election could affect the peace process. He urged those attending the meeting, to implement the peace process with serious caution and full attention during the lead up to the election.
Those attending, the two day meeting (October 10-12) held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, included representatives from the ethnic armed organizations who have signed on to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA). It is reported the participants were intensely discussing how to best get the peace process back on track and to resume the official talks necessary to hold the 21st Century Panglong (Peace Conference) in 2020.
The talks have been on hold for the last year and a half. The peace process become stagnant when both the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) suspended their participation from official meetings.
Speaking allegorically, General Yawd Serk said, “When the peace talks and political talks are taking place, on the other side, we should work toward having the sounds of gun fired and bomb blasts [be] silent. It is crucial not to have fire at one side but the other side with one blow of water.” The General’s meaning is that while holding peace talks — it is better not to have fighting.
General Yawd Serk continued “It is essential that if the Hluttaw is trying to amend the 2008 constitution and those of us trying to amend constitution in accordance with the NCA roadmap be consistent and harmonious. Not too extreme nor too moderate, we need to proceed …. with caution.” He added, it is “just human nature, we can make a change, destroy and re-create the things we have created if we wish.”
Earlier this year, the General expressed his belief that the government will consider the peace process a second priority because the pending election will take precedence. In May 2019, he argued there should be discussions and an agreement that the peace process will continue after the 2020 election.
U Hla Maung Shwe, an adviser to the government’s Peace Commission told Mon News Agency.“We have informally asked the EAO members on how to resume the political talks. From our side, we have discussed [if this should take place within] the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC) or the Union Peace Conference (UPC). Then, we make the decisions at the UPC meeting. If it is not done yet in post 2020, we will have to present it at Hluttaw, …..after getting approval, what else do we have? That is the question we asked [how to proceed on these] things as they are [also] concerned about [them], — it seems like we have regained trust.”
