State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi urged the public not to be afraid to complain if they spot any wrongdoing by ministers and civil servants during her fifth public “peace talk” on Friday in Loikaw, the capital of Kayah State.
She said channels for complaints were open to the public and encouraged people to exercise their democratic rights and responsibilities. She was responding to comments from Ko Mario, a 26-year-old farmer who highlighted the public’s fear of the government and Tatmadaw, the common term for Myanmar’s military, in the area.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said that if members of the public failed to raise their complaints they would be abetting injustice. “If the administrators do wrong, the public has the responsibility to complain,” she said. “It is your right. And if we don’t know, we cannot take any action. So don’t be afraid.”
“You must value yourselves and use your authority and ability,” she continued. “We, the Union government, cannot know about each one [minister and civil servant]. Only when you raise your concerns and complain can we know, so don’t feel like a burden.”
As Christians, Mario said, they were not allowed to place crosses on their own land because the Tatmadaw would confiscate them. He shared his childhood experiences as a displaced person.
“In 2008 when we returned to our homes in the hills after we fled from the fighting, we saw the signposts on our land that said it was owned by the military. We want to ask for our land back,” he said.
She instructed Kayah’s chief minister and its minister of border affairs and security to address the issue.
During the talk, which ran about 100 minutes, eight ethnic Kayah, Kayaw, Gaybar, Kayan, Inn and Shan youth representatives from the state raised their concerns about issues ranging from peace and equality to federalism, development, women’s affairs and ethnic literature and culture.
It was the fifth such peace talk the state counselor has hosted this year. At each one, issues of peace, development and national reconciliation dominated the discussions. The events have been generally well received as a boon for the country.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday reiterated the importance of the rule of law, warning cabinet members and civil servants at all levels to behave themselves and urging them to help move the country toward peace with compassion.
She held the first peace talk in Naypyitaw on the first day of 2017 and the second on Feb 12, Union Day, in Panglong in southern Shan State. The third talk was in Naypyitaw in April and the fourth in August in a village in Mandalay Region.
After her talk in August, with mostly ethnic Bamar in central Myanmar, some questioned whether the location was appropriate because residents of the area knew relatively little about war-torn regions.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi acknowledged that those who grew up in conflict zones were more familiar with the peace process than those who had not, residents of central Myanmar in particular.
Friday’s peace talk in Loikaw brought some hope to residents of Kayah State, which has suffered from civil war between ethnic Karenni armed groups and the Tatmadaw for the past sixty years. The Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) is currently in talk with the government about signing the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA); it signed a bilateral ceasefire with the Kayah State government in March 2012.
“It brings benefits to our state because the state counselor and the government might now know things about the state,” said Khu Peh Nyoe Reh, secretary of the Kayah National Literature and Culture Committee. He said the youth of Kayah State were able to raise some of their main concerns.
“We think she came to learn about the role of youth and the public’s concerns in our state,” said Khu Peh Nyoe Reh. “But we still have to discuss more about culture and ethnic literature issue.”
Daw Olivia, another peace talk participant, discussed the need to preserve ethnic literature and culture and to empower ethnic language teachers. Ethnic languages classes have been allowed in schools since 2013 but are hampered by a lack of resources, including teachers and materials.
Irrawaddy (30 December 2017)