TEMPO.CO, Yangon - This is how Sai Nyunt Lwin, secretary of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), one of the 59 ethnic political parties that contested the November 8 national elections in Myanmar, felt after the poll results were announced. It was shock and awe for the SNLD and other ethnic political parties, which were routed by the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Myanmar’s world famous democracy champion Aung Saan Suu Kyi.
As Sai Nyunt explained in an interview to the local news agency Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), few even among the media expected such a decisive defeat for the political parties representing the many ethnic groups who comprise about 30% of Myanmar’s population.
The SNLD, the largest ethnic party in Shan state in eastern Burma bordering Thailand, won only a third of the seats it expected to win.
The ethnic parties together won only 36 out of 117 Pyithu Hluttaw (Lower House of Parliament) seats in Myanmar’s bicameral parliament, representing townships in the country’s seven ethnic states.
The NLD also dominated the race for the state legislatures, which was earlier widely expected to go in favour of the ethnic parties. Of the 256 seats in the seven ethnic state parliaments, only 83 seats were captured by the ethnic parties.
Although the ethnic political parties were disappointed with their poor performance, they welcomed the NLD win. Paul Hawi Ying of the Chin Progressive Party said: “We are happy about the NLD landslide victory as people show the desire for change.”
The United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) representing 11 of Myanmar’s 18 ethnic armed groups said: “We recognise, take pride (in the NLD’s win) and are delighted for the NLD.”
The Karen National Union (KNU), the internationally best known among the ethnic rebel armies, congratulated the NLD. “I believe that the NLD will bring changes in three main areas: national peace and reconciliation, constitutional change and the rule of law,” KNU Vice Chairperson, Naw Zipporah Sein, said in a statement.
The NLD poll manifesto has committed the government it is scheduled to form in April 2016, to the core ethnic aspirations for the establishment of a federal democratic union and the guarantee of ethnic rights.
Democracy and peace go hand in hand
While peace and self-determination were major issues for the ethnic groups, the establishment of real democracy was always high among their priorities. The armed groups fighting the government are based in the country’s seven ethnic states. The oldest of these, the KNU was established in 1949. An estimated about 50,000 ethnic fighters have been engaged in on-off battles with government security forces since Myanmar’s independence from British colonial rule in 1948. The civil war has displaced tens of thousands of families from the ethnic areas.
Eight rebel groups signed a peace deal with the government on 15 October 2015 but sporadic fighting has continued in areas controlled by key groups that did not sign the mid-October Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA).
For decades, the country’s military rulers have justified their iron grip as needed to hold the country together against the perceived separatist goal of the rebel armies. However, the election results and the congratulatory messages from the ethnic political parties and armed groups have challenged this perception.
In a 2012 statement, which they also sent to US President Barack Obama, the United Nationalities Alliance (UNA), a 25-year-old umbrella grouping of eight ethnic political parties said: “We always want and have been fighting for genuine federal union in which rule of law, equality, self-determination and human rights are restored and prevail for all ethnic nationalities of Burma.”
A 2013 UNFC white paper also articulated the aspiration for a genuine federal union. “As the Union of Burma/Myanmar is based on mutual respect, equality, democratic principles, and full autonomy in internal administration as agreed in the (1947) Panglong Agreement, there should be no reason for anyone to secede from the nation,” the UNFC said. The overall aim of the peace process, according to the rebels is “to find a sustainable and just solution for the long-term needs of the people of Burma/Myanmar”.
In a rare coming together two years ago, the UNA and the UNFC initiated a process to draft a federal constitution in keeping with their stated goals.
Media coverage of the ethnic issue
The media is expected to play a key role in the process of strengthening Myanmar’s fledgling democracy and promoting public awareness of the ethnic groups’ aspirations. In the 2013 white paper, the UNFC said it expected the media to contribute to broadening public understanding about the peace process that began with a dialogue with the government in 2012.
The UNFC’s proposed framework for political dialogue includes a section on the role of media which states: “Throughout the peace processes, all media has to provide accurate and balanced information on the peace and dialogue process.
Its white paper asked that media, whether state-run or privately owned, “collaborate and promote responsible coverage in the spirit of creating a new vision for the country.”
Pad Saw Kwe Htoo Win, KNU Joint Secretary says the role of the media is crucial in making people understand the nitty-gritty of the peace process. The KNU is among the parties to the NCA signed with the Thein Sein government.
During a telephone interview, the KNU official explained the nuances of the peace deal and indicated that these were not adequately reported by the media which instead focused heavily on the military aspect of the NCA.
Despite its name, the NCA is much more than a cessation of armed hostilities, he said. It also covers a political dialogue and humanitarian assistance in the conflict areas, including resettlement of internally displaced persons, restoration and start of education, social and health services, and the rebuilding of conflict-shattered local livelihoods.
Although the ethnic conflict is always in the news in Myanmar because of the unending fighting, the peace process was not a media focus issue in its coverage of the elections, says Rast’o Kuzel of Democracy Reporting International (DRI), a Germany-based non-governmental international media development organization working in Myanmar.
The KNU representative’s exasperation with the media’s inadequate understanding of the ethnic conflict finds resonance in the views of a senior Yangon-based journalist. Sithu Aung Myint, Chief Editor of the Burmese language weekly The Sun says that most Yangon-based journalists are of majority Burman ethnicity and have “not enough knowledge of ethnic issues.”
Peace and gender activist May Sabe Phyu, who won the United States Department of State’s 2015 International Woman of Courage award, noted that ethnic issues are usually reported in mainstream media only for events like a new school or bridge is opened, or there is more fighting somewhere. “There is very rare analysis about what are the problems (of the ethnic peoples) and the root causes; what are their feelings, their expectations, and how the ethnic people hope to contribute to addressing these problems,” Sabe Phyu pointed out.
Only a few Yangon-based media organizations consistently report on ethnic issues, following every twist and turn of the peace process, including in the ethnic areas. Mizzima, The Irrawaddy, Democratic Voice of Burma, and Myanmar Times stand out. Burma News International (BNI), a network of news organizations, also runs the Myanmar Peace Monitor
(http://mmpeacemonitor.org), a detailed ground-based resource centre for journalists covering the peace process.
“The people, the civilians are the ones who suffered a lot from this conflict. (Hence) they should be able to monitor the implementation of the agreement,” says KNU’s Htoo Win. These aspects are better covered by media organizations based in the ethnic areas.
But in the other side, their voice must be picked up by Yangon-based media so it reaches the ears of national policymakers. “Media should talk about diversity and inclusiveness,” Sabe Phyu said, calling for a better understanding of ethnic issues by national media.
*) This article, written by a Filipino independent journalist, Ruan Rosauro, is produced for the 2015 Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) fellowship program raising a theme “Covering the coverage of the 2015 elections in Myanmar”.
