In the middle of last week I was talking in Naypyitaw with MPs and parliamentary officials about problems of humanitarian intervention above all in Rakhine State. My trip was arranged by Martin Tuang and Bwe Doe Aye (Daniel) from Myanmar Scholarship Alumni Association’s Empowerment Program for Parliamentarians. I was impressed by the work EPP is doing in Office 20, a large building down the road from the looming parliamentary complex.

A prime mover in establishing EPP roughly 18 months ago was opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The initiative also has full support from Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann. Funding comes mainly from OSF. The focus is on teaching English to elected members and appointed officials of both houses of parliament. Initially the expectation was that 30 MPs and 30 administrators would register. In fact, despite losing some class members chiefly to time constraints, the number of enrolled MPs is currently 40-50, and the number of enrolled officials is 130-140. As Myanmar reclaims full membership of international society, all acknowledge English as a necessary skill.

Further empowerment takes place through links with overseas training institutes. At present, two parliamentary officials (and a bigger cohort from government departments) are studying for six months at a partner institute in New Zealand, and four legislative officials (again with colleagues from the executive) are studying for three months at an institute in India. Often it’s minor change of this kind that brings home the reality of reform in Myanmar.