Building bridges: Myanmar and New Zealand

A cross-party delegation led by the Speaker of the New Zealand Parliament met with Myanmar government officials including President U Thein Sein and Speaker Shwe Mann recently, in a first-time visit by the annual envoy.

This comes just weeks after the New Zealand Embassy in Yangon commenced operations – a move Speaker David Carter described as one of great significance and integral to boosting ties with Myanmar.

“New Zealand is a country with limited resources and the fact we've established an office shows we're very serious about fostering a relationship with Myanmar. We do it because we accept they are making progress in moving towards democracy”, Mr Carter said.

The embassy, headed up by Charges D’Affaires Bruce Shepherd, shares a space with the Dutch consulate.

Tentative optimism about the reform process has informed the New Zealand Government's decision to boost its level of engagement with Myanmar.

“The very fact that they're moving from a military regime… and have elections scheduled for 2015 - we sense that progress is being made, and that it's genuine. We're not saying everything's perfect. We're certainly not saying 'you've got to do it this way', but for a country that says 'we're prepared to embrace democracy, we're happy to play our part,” Mr Carter said.

"We also see opportunities for a system of aid programs, particularly around our areas of expertise in agriculture, capacity-building... One of the programs we've got going is to allow some of their civil servants to come down and work with our civil servants in Wellington and bring back some of our culture and language here."

The exchange program has the support of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who reportedly sees it as a practical way of helping Myanmar's democratic transition.

New Zealand’s major aid project in Myanmar is developing capacity in the dairy industry – a program that entails an investment of some $6 million.

“For an aid project from NZ that's big money. Again, that's a matter of making sure their expectations about what we can achieve are realistic”, Mr Carter said.

"Ultimately there will also be some commercial activities. Our largest company, Fonterra, has established an office here, so there are commercial aspects to it.”

Mr Carter emphasised the parliamentary delegation’s choice to visit Thailand, Myanmar and Japan is part of a broader regional focus on Asia.

"New Zealand has made a conscious effort in shifting away from its heritage roots to England, and moving towards Asia. China's our second largest trading partner, and successive governments since the early 70s have said our future should be Asia. I think they've been proven to be right".

The parliamentary delegation’s visit comes as New Zealand vies for a temporary seat on the UN Security Council, ramping up its campaign for support from countries member states.

“We've got an absolute commitment of support from most of the ASEAN countries… I think we're a small but proud democracy that has the ability to have a very important role on the Security Council”, he said.

Of Myanmar assuming the ASEAN chair, Mr Carter says it presents a big opportunity to present, on a global stage, the progress that’s been made since 2010, as well as outlining the vision for 2015 and beyond.

While civil society and activists voice concerns that Myanmar isn’t taking adequate measures in combating human rights abuses within the country, New Zealand’s government sees increased engagement as a valuable way of helping to foster the democratic transition.

"We take the opportunity of mentioning [the particular human rights situation] when we travel to any country. Sometimes there's criticism about our very significant relationship with China and their human rights track record; that it wouldn't be to a level that's satisfactory for New Zealand. I think it's an opportunity for us to build the bridges with countries like Myanmar; to mention that we think there are some challenges, and not to come and lecture and tell them how it's going to be done", he said.

"For a country that didn't have a democracy, a proper parliamentary system – when you consider this all started in 2010 – they've done remarkably well", he said, going on to explain he was impressed with President U Thein Sein and his apparent sincerity.

“We get the impression he has a very genuine agenda, in his time, to have left a legacy where he will be remembered as the first President who started this [democratic] transition", he said.

During his visit to the New Zealand’s “Beehive” parliament in Wellington, U Shwe Mann was able to bear witness New Zealand's "robust democracy" in action.

"He sat through our question time and he's still talking about it because it was quite a rowdy day. There'd been a major report out and it was one of the noisiest days I've had to chair. On this particular day we weren't as restrained as usual - I think two people got thrown out".

On the matter of constitutional reform and the current stipulation that 25% of Myanmar's parliament be designated military seats, Mr Carter emphasised that change is a process and can take some time. He pointed to the example of New Zealand's introduction of the Mixed Members Proportional (MMP) system, introduced in 1996, as an example of this.

"For New Zealand it took us half a decade: five or six years of discussion and education and then two referendums. Things move at their own pace," he said.

Mr Carter said U Shwe Mann expressed a particular admiration of MMP during his time in NZ, and the positive impact it has had on the composition of the House of Representatives.

"Since that change, I think we now have a more diverse parliament – more female representatives, more ethnic minorities. It could have the potential here”, Mr Carter said.

New Zealand, unlike many countries that underwent colonisation, is unique in that its Treaty of Waitangi laid the foundations for reconciliation with its indigenous Maori people. While Mr Carter was quick to point out that each country faces its own unique challenges and there are no hard and fast rules in that arena, there could be take-away lessons for a nascent democracy like Myanmar.

source: The Myanmar Times
http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/8497-building-bridges-myanmar-and-new-zealand.html