Working with The Westminster Foundation for Democracy in Myanmar
Under its partnership agreement with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, one of our members, Hugh Bayley, volunteered as a mentor with committees in the Myanmar Parliament or Hluttaw. This was to help them scrutinise policy and legislation more effectively. Hugh spent nearly twenty years as a Select Committee member, and ten years chairing Public Bill Committees.
An ethical dilemma: should agencies like the Westminster Foundation and the Parliamentary Outreach Trust be working in Myanmar at all, given the country’s appalling human rights record? The Trust believes we should. Hugh Bayley agrees and here he explains why.
Building democracy in Myanmar is a slow and difficult task, like walking up a sand dune. The people are warm and welcoming, but they have never had a Parliament that holds their government to account.
The world applauded when the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who spent years under house arrest, won a majority in both houses of Parliament in 2015. Although the Government does not have full control, in particular of the armed forces, and she is prevented by the constitution from becoming President, because she married a foreigner from the UK, she became State Counsellor, the de facto head of Government.
The world’s enthusiasm quickly turned to dismay. The peace process between the Burmese majority, represented by the military and the government, and a number of separatist minority ethnic groups has still not ended the violence. In August 2017 an abortive uprising by small numbers of the long-persecuted Rohingya people triggered shocking reprisals by the military, and forced 700,000 Rohingya to flee across the border to Bangladesh, where they live in appalling conditions in and around Cox’s Bazaar. This coastal, low-lying, land frequently floods. When the next typhoon comes there will be horrifying humanitarian disaster.
I sit on the Board of the International Rescue Committee which provides support for refugees in Cox’s Bazaar, and for internally displaced Rohingya, and people from other minority ethnic groups, in Myanmar itself. There is no excuse for Myanmar’s appalling human rights record, and I understand why people in the UK, including the Commons International Development Committee who were denied visas to visit Myanmar to investigate the Rohingya crisis, question whether it is right for us to continue to provide aid to Myanmar, particularly for developing a state institution like the Parliament.
I need to make a personal ethical choice about whether mentoring does more harm than good. For me the question turns on the direction of travel. Is the Parliament becoming more able, and willing, to challenge the government and hold it to account? I believe it is, although it still has far to go, especially on human rights and control over the armed forces.
Even the idea that the Government, and military, should be held accountable is not widely understood. The country has had little contact with the outside world since independence in 1948, and therefore little knowledge of what happens elsewhere, and, of course, has only just emerged from decades of military dictatorship.
Many members of Parliament, from Aung San Sui Kyi’s party, were arrested and imprisoned under the military dictatorship. They know about human rights abuse, and unaccountable military forces, from direct personal experience. I believe it is worth working with them as they try to move Myanmar from where it is now towards a better place.
China shares a border with Myanmar, and has far greater interests in Myanmar than any country in Europe – including access to ports on the Indian Ocean. It is investing heavily financially, and politically, in its bilateral relationship. China is not a democracy, does not believe in accountable government and does not have a good record on human rights. Its interests are not the same as ours. If we were to stop working with Myanmar where, after decades of dictatorship, a window of opportunity for change has finally opened, our influence would decline, and China’s would grow.
Despite all the challenges, Myanmar’s Parliament is making a difference. This is a Parliament trying to do fifty years catch-up in five years, and it is not easy. But when you think how long our Parliament has taken to build its institutions and procedures, and hold the executive to account, they are making progress. They even have a few ideas we should study.
Hugh Bayley, May 2019
Hugh’s contribution is an edited version of an article which first appeared in Order Order, the journal of the Association of Former Members of Parliament.
POT hopes to publish further details of the Myanmar programme later this year.
PARLIAMENTARY OUTREACH TRUST 