Myanmar: the perfect opportunity for Canada to show up

“We can't build a better world unless we work together, respect our differences, protect the vulnerable, and stand up for the things that matter most.” That’s part of what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the United Nations General Assembly in a speech last fall. Trudeau’s statement is indicative of the leadership Canada must take to deliver the conditions necessary for refugees from Myanmar to return home. Daily press stories and reports from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) document violence in Myanmar and deplorable conditions in refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh. Fortunately, Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi recently expressed a desire for a new relationship with the United Nations that includes allowing UN organizations on the ground in Myanmar to support the return of the refugees. Moral indifference, policy ambiguity, and inaction are now not an option. For the Muslims from Rakhine state, the centre of the violence against the Rohingya, to willingly return home requires global financial assistance coupled with on-the-ground third-party oversight of the process. Gaining the right to oversee this process requires constructive engagement with the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, the military shadow government, and ultimately the people of Myanmar. A lasting solution in Rakhine state, as Hugh Segal writes in Two Freedoms: Canada's Global Future, is to provide living conditions that guarantee the freedom from want and the freedom from fear. Canada should lead this negotiation and then offer resources to the UN’s supervision of a resettlement and economic development plan in partnership with the Myanmar government. Canada has the capacity to provide for the cost and personnel required for this. The plan must enable Myanmar’s leadership to deliver improvements to the refugees in parallel with significant economic benefits to the rest of Myanmar. Myanmar’s nascent democracy will only prosper without fear of economic sanctions. For this to transpire, the government must create the conditions for the refugees who left Rakhine state to return. Canada must negotiate directly or via the United Nations with the Myanmar government to deploy international observers including Canadians to oversee the return to assure the refugees that returning home will not result in bodily harm or further persecution. This will help restore the broken trust between the Rakhine state government and its people. This alternative form of peacekeeping is also a good counterbalance to the harder security challenges awaiting Canadian troops in Mali, where they're set to deploy within months. Canada should negotiate to deploy international observers including Canadians to oversee the safe return of refugees to Myanmar, says author John Gruetzner. Photograph courtesy of John Gruetzner The return home should be supported with significant funding to Engineers Without Borders as well as Doctors Without Borders and in-country funds to improve housing and village-level public services. The NGO Landesa, which supports rural development, should assist the government to better document land ownership rights across Myanmar. Part of Canada’s role will not only be to provide a significant amount of its own development assistance, but also to lead a public and private sector global effort to restore prosperity to Rakhine state. It is equally important to support the Myanmar government at the federal level with a larger amount of financial resources directed to national economic development. These can be from the United States, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, European Union, World Bank, China, and Japan, but also from the prosperous countries in the Muslim world. Thomas Jefferson, 35 years after the American Revolution, stated that democracy in America was safe. Democracy in Myanmar is only entering its third year and is troubled. Myanmar’s ruling National League for Democracy is cognizant of the majority interest and not yet applying a second key principle of democracy: protection of the minority interest. Myanmar’s current constitution is dysfunctional and this creates a political fault line that impedes the democratic process. The path of least resistance is for the global community to condemn Aung San Suu Kyi and avoid responsibility; but as a global partner, it is best we repair our community. There are no benefits to Myanmar’s people if the international community imposes wide sanctions to appease its own failure to act. Pragmatic benefits, such as having a successful democracy in the region and the reduction of the potential for terrorism, easily justify the financial cost of this undertaking. This is also a test case to reduce the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide from the current 65 million. Canada already set a global example in accepting Syrians. Now it should demonstrate the benefits of a better model for humanity. This model is to deliver a proactive foreign policy and a hands-on role that actually returns refugees home. John Gruetzner is the managing director of Intercedent, an Asian-focused advisory firm. The Hill Times

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Myanmar: the perfect opportunity for Canada to show up

Canada already set a global example in accepting Syrians who can’t return home. Now it should take a hands-on role that actually returns Rohingya refugees home in a safe way.

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