Seminar Report The role of Political Parties in Democratic Transitions

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could also invest more time in negotiating their differences, try to find a common agenda on which they can cooperate and seek a dialogue with officials. 3. What are two sources of ideas your party can use to help it think of solutions to problems facing Myanmar? The group prioritized an all-inclusive dialogue, trust building, hearing and listening to peoples’ voices and capacity building of the general population as the main sources to find solutions to problems facing Myanmar. When parties want to understand and propose solutions to problems facing the educational and agricultural sector, the group identified the following possibilities: Meeting the academia, consultants, civil society, government and doing more research by the parties. Mr Thomas Cormier emphasized that it is important to find the right people to reach out to when your party seeks more information on specific topics. You could try to identify new party members with a specific background so they can share their knowledge and experience on certain party policies for example. It is important to be smart and inclusive, parties should therefore make sure that young people and women are sufficiently integrated in their party and in its general policies instead of creating a separate youth or women’s wing. Furthermore Mr Tom Cormier pointed out that political parties do not have to take on the responsibility of having all the knowledge themselves. Instead, parties have to engage with people who do such as scholars, civil society, the general population, etc. 4. What are the two things political parties can do now that they could not do three years ago? Participants mentioned that important changes in the last three years are the freedom of expression, freedom of campaigning and freedom of the media. Moreover, the number of people interested in politics has increased. The fact that political parties can now negotiate amongst each other is an important opportunity, which the parties need to make more use of. Parties should further promote the general interest in politics and make use of the freedom of campaigning. Mr Tom Cormier indicated that the growing freedom of the media is also an opportunity because all new newspapers need stories to fill their pages and are therefore receptive to information from, amongst others, the political parties. It is therefore important to engage with the media. It is important that party members, NGOs and the media all know what a political party represents; who represents it; that the public knows that the party is involved in society; and that it cares about what is going on. Having such a party identity might also inspire new members to join in the political process. 2.2. Workshop 2: Facilitating a Multiparty Dialogue: Challenges and ways forward in Myanmar By Mr Shaun MacKay and local co-facilitator Mr Khine Win, Sandhi Management School This session focused on facilitating a multiparty dialogue. As a source of inspiration for political practitioners from Myanmar, it focused on the role and modalities of informal dialogue platforms in countries where NIMD and DIPD work. Political parties have a critical role in fostering the creation of a system, which encourages dialogue and interaction. The tone of political discussion will be determined by the way in which parties engage with each other. But the shift from authoritarian regime to a more democratic rule is likely to reveal many tensions that would previously have been suppressed. Transitions involve people learning to interact with each other on a new basis and that negotiation and compromise do not constitute weakness, but rather represent a healthy part of living in a democracy. For parties that dialogue will often result in different political actors recognising that they have common objectives. The workshop particularly facilitated a dialogue around the following questions: Why it is important to have an informal multiparty platform outside parliament? How do you start an informal multiparty dialogue process? How do you structure a multiparty dialogue platform? At the outset of the workshop Mr Shaun MacKay emphasized the importance of trust and confidence as critical ingredients for effective dialogue and cooperation. First, he stressed, politicians need to get to 12
know each other at a personal level as human beings, only then can they get to know each other as political beings. Mr Shaun MacKay went on to cover the following points: 1. Why it is important to have an informal platform outside parliament? He provided three key reasons: Consensus seeking: An informal platform lends itself to consensus seeking, opposed to parliament where politicians are involved in a debate and it is often more about scoring points rather than seeking compromise and consensus. Playing for the gallery, as is often the case in parliament, misses out on the opportunity to really listen and understand each other. Equality: Power relations in a formal setting like parliament are very different. Often there is little time to discuss and exchange views and the big parties often dominate debate. In an informal setting, all parties are equal and in a position to freely and equally share their positions. Weak linkages between the parties and the members of parliament: The views expressed in parliament do not necessarily express the party’s viewpoint but the individual MPs position. An informal platform allows the parties to exchange the party’s positions on policy issues. He furthermore highlighted two general key characteristics of NIMD/DIPD facilitated platforms: Inclusive nature: All parliamentary political parties are represented and in a number of countries the non-parliamentary parties also have a seat. Confidentiality: Each party is allowed to express itself openly with a view to seeking compromise. In the glary of the public, compromise is often not possible. Clear rules of engagement need to be defined to enable the platform to work effectively and transparently and on the basis of mutual trust. 2. How do you start the informal dialogue process? To start the dialogue process and embark on the agenda setting phase, it is often useful and strategic to select less contentious issues at the beginning, to ensure some early successes and get the process moving. More contentious issues can then be tackled at a later stage when a sound foundation has been laid. Once agreement is reached at the informal platform on a certain reform agenda, it has to be presented to parliament. Because the platform consists of all parliamentary parties, it is easier to do this as consensus has already been reached. Two aspects are important to make it work. First, the process of exchange between the parties and the parliamentary caucus is very essential. The caucus needs to be briefed and closely engaged on the policy process so they can advocate the common positions in parliament. A second key requirement is the need to develop policy capacity in the party to be able to develop and analyse alternative policies. 3. How do you structure the dialogue platform? Structures vary from country to country depending on the local context. In some countries, the dialogue is facilitated by an NGO, who acts as the secretariat. Or it could be an autonomous structure established by the participating political parties. In that case, the Secretary Generals (SGs) of the participating political parties make up the Board of these structures. The SGs have the autonomy to speak on behalf of the party and have the authority to represent the party. In some countries, (above the Council of SGs- the dialogue council), a Summit of Presidents is also established that meets twice a year to discuss strategic issues and endorse the reform agenda. Experience teaches that difficult issues that cannot be tackled in parliament can often be addressed in such an informal forum that allows for more time for debates and can provide the necessary research and support capacity. The various platforms established in the various countries form part of a network. The exchange of experiences and mutual learning has proved very helpful to the political parties of different countries.. Discussion Following Mr Shaun MacKay’s introduction, participants were divided into four groups to identify the key issues for agenda setting in Myanmar and to discuss capacity building requirements for parties in an multiparty dialogue platform. The groups discussed the importance of several issues, which is summarised below: 13
Page 1 and 2: Seminar Report The role of Politica
Page 3 and 4: The discussions during the seminar
Page 5 and 6: - Partnership: Partnership means a
Page 7 and 8: Political reform period (1999-prese
Page 9 and 10: The constituent assembly, however,
Page 11: Day 2: Wednesday 20 February 2013 2
Page 15 and 16: 5. What do voters in Myanmar expect
Page 17 and 18: share their observations of the sem
Page 19 and 20: Annex 1: Seminar agenda Day 1: Tues
Page 21 and 22: Annex 2: Participant List NO NAME T
Page 23 and 24: 39 U Mai Ohn Khine CEC Ta-Arng (Pal
Page 25 and 26: 78 U Maung Kyaw Khine 79 U Sein Hla
Page 27: 115 Saw Lin Htein S - 2 Phlone-Sqaw

Seminar Report The role of Political Parties in Democratic Transitions

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