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Discourse: Myanmar's elected lawmakers to establish provisional government
In this exclusive interview with The Jakarta Post, Dr Sasa of the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), a band of elected lawmakers leading the resistance against the military junta in Myanmar, calls on the international community to support its plan to establish a provisional government and a new constitution to put an end to the illegal coup government.
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People hold up the three-finger salute during the funeral procession for protester Kyal Sin, in Mandalay on March 4, a day after she was shot in the head while taking part in a demonstration against the military coup. (Agence France Presse/STR)
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em>A few days after Myanmar’s military usurped the civilian government ahead of the convening of its parliament on Feb. 1 and launched mass arrests, the remaining elected lawmakers were forced to go underground to form the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH). The Jakarta Post’s Dian Septiari, Tama Salim and Ary Hermawan spoke to Dr Sasa, the interim authority’s appointed special envoy to the United Nations, about what Indonesia and the rest of the international community could do to respond to the increasingly dire situation in Myanmar. The following are excerpts from the interview:
Question: Indonesia has called for an “inclusive democratic transition” in Myanmar and insists that it must engage with both sides to chart a path forward. Is this a viable solution?
Answer: I think it is clear; we have no place for criminals to criminalize us again and again. We don’t [want to see a repetition of] the military taking power away anytime they want and for our ASEAN friends – some of them – to support them. That is not going to happen; there is no negotiation on that.
That means we will be [striving] for a new future for Myanmar, where the military will be under full civilian control. We are [planning to set up] a federal army, so no more of the military Tatmadaw.
If they would like to be a part of us, they have to come under the people of Myanmar; no one is above the people of Myanmar. There’s no negotiation if they are not willing to say yes to democratic principles.
There’s not going to be any negotiation unless they stop terrorizing the people and say sorry to the people for what they have done and to the families whose sons and daughters they killed.
I think the negotiation should be different from what it had to be in the last two or three weeks, when there was an intervention for negotiation. The people of Myanmar have made it clear that they want to live free from the military and we don’t want [another] military coup.
