Myanmar News Links: Peace process: Both sides need to review own mindset

In order to achieve a speedy Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), both the government and the armed resistance movements (ARMs) will have to change their entrenched mindsets, according to sources from the ARMs' Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) that had been holding a two-day meeting in Chiangmai to review the first draft of the NCA Single text document that came out of the 4-day NCCT-government meeting earlier this month.

NCCT meeting in Chiangmai, 28-29 April 2014 (Photo: Aung Moe Myint/ DVB)

"On the government side, nothing spooks them more than the word 'federalism'" said a source who did not wish to be identified, following the conclusion of the meeting. "On the contrary, many on our side can't even go to sleep or eat without using or hearing it."

Which also applies to other words like "revolution" and "civil war" the two sides are at loggerheads with each other.

"At the next round of talks, we will therefore be discussing more about the concepts of the words than the words themselves," said another source. "If both sides share the same basic concept, then any words, either theirs or ours, will be okay."

India, for example, is in practice a federal country, though official statements have not referred to itself as one.

The date of the next meeting has been proposed on 19 May.

But there are also differences which are more about principles than words. "For instance, the government wants both sides to be subordinate to the Union Peacemaking Central Committee (UPCC) headed by the President," said the second source. "But we have counter-proposed that there must be a joint supreme body."

The 11 person UPCC is comprised of: President, 2 Vice Presidents, 2 House Speakers, Attorney General, Commander in Chief, 3 military appointed ministers for defense, home and border affairs, and a secretary from the President's Office. It is, to all intents and purposes, the most powerful National Defense and Security Council (NDSC), known as Ka-Long, as the only differences are that the latter has the foreign minister and deputy commander-in-chief instead of the Attorney General and Secretary from the President's Office, according to critics.

The NCCT has cited necessity for consultations within each movement and among all movements for the postponement of the next NCCT-UPWC (Governments Union Peacemaking Work Committee) which was initially scheduled for 5 May.