New Myanmar Leadership Institute: forming leaders with competence and compassion

“Replace the ‘I’ of ‘illness’ with ‘we’ and it becomes ‘wellness’. A good leader confronts the illness of society and brings it to wellness.” These are the words of Charles Cardinal Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, who formally opened the Myanmar Leadership Institute (MLI) on November 14.

MLI aspires to form a generation of leaders who will lead with competence and serve with compassion, seeing leadership through the lens of social justice.

“After many decades of darkness, Myanmar needs good leaders who will lead us to the light,” said Cardinal Bo, who had entrusted to the Jesuits his dream of setting up a leadership institute in the country.

“This Institute has been long in planning, and I am most grateful to the Jesuit fathers for taking up my invitation and request,” he said. “We want [MLI] to be a training ground for persons who will go out and lead with courage and frankness in all spheres of community and public life and service.”

The institute combines the values and insight of the Dharmachakra’s “Eightfold Path” with foundational principles of Catholic Social Teaching, and draws on the 500-year Jesuit tradition of organisation, decision making and education.

Fr Mark Raper SJ interprets the logo of MLI, which depicts the values and insight of the Dharmachakra’s “Eightfold Path” and the foundational principles of Catholic Social Teaching. On the one hand, the eight spokes of the wheel represent right understanding, right thought, right speech, right conduct, right means of making a living, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration; on the other hand, the principles and values of respect for human dignity, for the common good, solidarity, subsidiarity, human rights and responsibilities, stewardship of creation, dignity of work and the rights of workers, and option for the poor

“Here at MLI we wish to blend schools of knowledge, values and skills developed over millennia,” said Myanmar Jesuit Superior Fr Mark Raper SJ.

“Of course, we also integrate contemporary organisational behaviour, but we are convinced that Myanmar needs more than to simply borrow Western theoretical models,” he added.

An important component of MLI’s programmes in leadership, carried out in partnership with Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, is teaching the students to move in the social, ethnic, cultural and religious contexts of Myanmar, as well as the world.

The curriculum includes nation building, ethical principles, social inclusion, restoration of peace and human rights, along with discernment, strategic thinking and direction setting.

“With these ingredients and your magnificent support and encouragement, MLI will make a real contribution to Myanmar civil society, business, education and religious institutions for the coming years and decades,” said Fr Raper.

The MLI core team: Dr Joseph Antony Jacob SJ (Director), Dr Mark Labuntog, Sr Sisca Setiati FCJ, Ma Assumpta Mun Pi, Fr Mark Raper SJ and Fr Maurus Irsan Rimawal SJ

Saw Kapi, Director at Salween Institute for Public Policy and Executive Director of Thabyay Education Foundation, was one of the guests at the opening.

Thabyay Education Foundation has supported thousands of young people from diverse ethnicities with skills in English, leadership and the knowledge necessary for the sustainable development of their communities and country.

“As a believer in the power of knowledge, I dare say that the solution to Myanmar’s political and economic problems can only be found through educating its citizens,” said Saw Kapi.

“We as a country, especially in times of critical transition now, need to nurture a new generation of leaders who are not only critical and creative but also kind and compassionate. It is the spirituality of kindness and compassion that will, in the long run, sustain our development achieved through our knowledge and skills.”