Peace process, Myanmar peace centre, 2nd Pinglong, peace forums, national reconciliation, ceasefire agreements, peace talks, cessation of armed conflicts, NCA, federalism approach – all have been tried and tested, but the conflicts are not abating at all by any measures. From Nay Win to Than Shwe to Khin Nyunt to Thein Sein to Su Kyi, all leaders have tried and failed to bring about a lasting peace within the borders of Myanmar.
If all of their endeavours have resulted in non-success, perhaps the vision or mission to bring about peace in Myanmar have to re-examined after all. Achieving peace is Myanmar may turn out to be more unfeasible than resolving middle east conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
Without striving for peace, what alternative have we got? What should be our substitute? Do we have another route towards development, to stand abreast of our neighbours?
Chicken or egg first?
Our leaders fundamental baseline is that we need peace for the country development. No peace, no investments, no economic growth seems to be the slogan. I beg to differ please.
We do NOT need peace for development of Myanmar. Please do not equate this with the situation where the whole country is a war zone, like Ukraine or Yemen or South Sudan or Syria.
ASEAN analogy
Just imagine ASEAN as a country, not as a grouping of different nations, for a moment temporarily. Think of the individual nations within the group as different states within one country.
Now, which state within ASEAN is at war? probably Myanmar. Which state within ASEAN has armed rebels? Probably Philippines. Does it hamper ASEAN growth? May be a bit. Does it affect individual states development? No, Singapore is still doing well as the first world nation. Vietnam is leading the growth charts. Indonesia and Malaysia are still doing ok. Laos is still selling its electricity to its neighbours. Tourists are still flocking to Thailand. Now you get my drift, hopefully.
Alternative Vision and Strategy
The new vision would be aiming for super normal growth in certain states within Myanmar. There is peace in these states. We can improve law and order. I think of Yangon, Bago, Ayeyarwaddy and Mon regions falling in line. If you find these four small states too hard to manage, select just one. If you set your goals so low that even making one small state developed looks like an impossible goal, reduce it to just one minuscule part of a state, such as the Blu island right opposite of Maw La Myine. The island is nearly as big as Singapore and stood alone on its own, only accessible via a causeway or a single bridge from the mainland.
We will develop that first. We will make a tax heaven out of Blu island. We will have a deep sea port, an international airport, 24-hr Electricity and state of the art infrastructure on there. We shall invite labor intensive industries of various kinds via tax incentives and deregulation. We will have sufficient power generation facilities to support the industry there. Once the fundamentals have been set up, the island would develop quickly attracting the attention of many from within the country looking for employment and other opportunities. After half a decade of success in similar regions, the majority of the population would start leaning towards peace in their own regions of conflicts too, thereby spreading the contagion of development fever across the regions.
Yes, peace would create a stable environment essential for development, free up resources being used for conflicts, promote trust, cooperation and inclusiveness, and prevent human suffering and displacement. But it is easier said than done. The practical results are not encouraging either, to say the least. We have seen with our own eyes that peace agreements that were signed with organisations such as KNU did not last for more than one presidential term, as the EAO regions and their respective leaders have no idea how to bring about sustainable development in their regions and create job opportunities.
So why don’t we give ourselves a chance to start afresh from development first and work towards peace later on. As in ASEAN, we can have conflicts and development in co-existence simultaneously. It’s time to take care of the populace in the regions of lower Myanmar who have been patiently awaiting for development opportunities for decades.
