Burma getting democracy lessons from two local MPs

www.thespec.com

Tue Feb 19 2013

12

Two Hamilton MPs are in Burma to help its parliamentarians learn the workings of a Western democracy.

Hamilton Centre MP David Christopherson and Hamilton East-Stoney Creek MP Wayne Marston are part of a 14-member Canadian delegation to the country (also called Myanmar) which is slowly moving from decades of military rule to civilian rule.

While there, the two New Democrats will get to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, the human rights activist who endured nearly two decades of house arrest after her party won the 1990 general elections. She has received a Nobel Peace Prize and was made an honorary citizen of Canada in 2007. She was released in 2011 and was elected to the Burmese parliament last year.

Christopherson, who is the deputy leader of Canada’s official Opposition, is looking forward to the meeting and compares her to Nelson Mandela.

“She’s amazing,” he said. “It will be like a Mandela moment. This is a woman who spent 20 years under house arrest and yet her goal was to have a brighter future for her country.”

The pair, who headed to Burma on the weekend, is part of a delegation that includes MPs from all three major parties, parliamentary staff and staff from the auditor general’s office. It is led by Calgary MP Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.

The delegation returns to Canada next Saturday.

Christopherson said they will meet Burmese parliamentarians throughout the week to talk to them about how Canada’s democracy works “and help them to understand what it is like to be an MP in a parliamentary democracy.”

As chair of the public accounts committee, he will cochair a special session with an official from the auditor general’s office on “what are the roles of the opposition and government in having a free and open government and accountability.”

Delegation members will also talk to government and political party staff.

Christopherson said Canada is well regarded by emerging democracies — he has been an observer in elections in countries such as Ukraine — and tells parliamentarians from those nations he hopes they one day have Canada’s problems.

“Their problems are so huge,” he said. “We’re fighting to get the government to admit that the F-35 program is going to cost $10 billion more than what they are admitting to, and in many countries the question is, ‘Who stole the $10 billion?’ because it never made it into the public treasury.”

“We should be grateful for what we have and this is an opportunity to help an emerging democracy.”

A visit to Canada by a Burmese delegation is planned for later this year.