The Myanmar School of Politics (MySoP) was launched in Dawei at the Tanintharyi Region this week. The Chief Minister of Tanintharyi, U Myat Ko, was present at the opening ceremony and emphasized the need for cross-party co-operation and dialogue in the politics of Myanmar.
Fifteen politicians representing five political parties and one member of the Regional Election Commission participate to the first course of the MySoP. During the course, the participants are offered basic knowledge on democratic politics with a special focus on practical skills in order to enhance their democratic capacity. In addition, the School aims at becoming a platform for multi-party dialogue. Democratic dialogue is still relatively rare in Myanmar where multi-party democracy was readopted in 2011. MySoP is the first ever extensive multi-party training programme in the country.
Senior Programme Manager, Anu Juvonen, from Demo Finland was also present at the ceremony. She offered peer-support from the Finnish perspective saying that Finland’s relatively fast development during the latter half of the 20th century would not have been possible without political parties that were willing to co-operate, discuss and compromise.
The MySoP will be launched in other regions of Myanmar later on with an objective to support peaceful and equal development throughout the country. The MySoP was established by Demo Finland and the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy.