Myanmar Leadership Institute (MLI), a long cherished dream of Yangon Archbishop Charles Cardinal Maung Bo and the Jesuits of the Myanmar Mission, was realised at its formal opening on November 14, 2018, though MLI started its first classes on October 19 with the blessing of Fr Mark Raper SJ, our Jesuit Superior. The opening of MLI marks a new era of leadership formation in Myanmar both within the Church and on secular fronts. At MLI’s festive launch, Cardinal Bo, Fr Raper SJ and myself, the first Executive Director of MLI, welcomed around 70 guests.
MLI is an arch-cathedral of learning, a pagoda of knowledge and a mosque of education. It is a symbol of unity in ethnic diversity. Its education has an international flavour. MLI’s aim is to sharpen students’ minds, season their hearts and soil their hands with the hard realities of the lives of the people of Myanmar.
The leadership course commences with a first quarter in which students are expected to gain greater self-knowledge and identify their own strengths and weaknesses. In the second quarter they build on their interpersonal, relational and task management skills. In the third quarter they enlarge their entrepreneurial and organisational capacity, learn to set up and manage projects, and develop corporate social and environmental responsibility. Finally, in the fourth quarter they learn to move in the social, ethnic, cultural and religious contexts of Myanmar and of our modern world. Nation building, ethical principles, social inclusion, restoration of peace and human rights are included in the curriculum along with discernment, strategic thinking and direction setting.
At the inauguration, Fr Raper unveiled the logo of MLI and explained that the logo and curriculum combine the values and insight of the Dharmachakra’s “Eightfold Path”, with 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, right concentration. On the other hand, Catholic social teaching offers the principles and values of respect for human dignity, for the common good, solidarity, subsidiarity, human rights and responsibilities, the stewardship of creation, the dignity of work and the rights of workers, and option for the poor. MLI blends schools of knowledge, values and skills developed over millennia. On top of that, MLI draws on the 500-year Jesuit tradition of organisation and education. This tradition is represented in the “sunburst” which has been a part of the Jesuit monogram since the 16th Century.
Speak with courage and frankness… only dialogue can help us grow. ~ Cardinal Charles Bo quoting Pope Francis
The Myanmar society is emerging from darkness into a promising yet uncertain civil future, Fr Raper remarked. Building stable organisations and reliable business on shifting sands is a treacherous endeavour, requiring leaders of integrity and discernment, flexible yet determined, sensitive yet free from fear, ready to lead to the light and above all, ready to serve. Hence our motto: “Learn to lead, lead to serve”.
Fr Raper thanked Cardinal Bo for entrusting the Jesuits with the responsibility of establishing and sustaining the institute and he thanked us, the MLI core faculty, which includes Academic Dean Dr Mark Labuntog, Sr Sisca Setiati FCJ, Ma Assumpta Mun Pi and Fr Irsan Rimawal SJ, as well as Fr Julio Giulietti SJ for having given our expertise, energy and determination to reach this point.
Cardinal Bo’s keynote speech appealed to all to “speak with courage and frankness” because “only dialogue can help us grow”. He said this was the message with which Pope Francis opened the Synod on Youth in Rome in October, at which Cardinal Bo was one of the moderators. Politics, said the Cardinal, quoting Pope Francis, is “one of the loftiest expressions of charity”. That type of leadership brings with it a concern for “the future of life and the planet, of the young and the least, in their thirst of fulfilment”. At MLI, these principles and values have been distilled into practical learning experiences. Good leaders who encourage consideration of others will help us all to move from “I” to “we”. Replace the “I” of ‘illness’ with “we” and it becomes ‘wellness’. MLI’s full time and evening classes prepare young people to speak convincingly, to dialogue and to lead.
After many decades of darkness, Myanmar needs good leaders who will lead us to the light, said Cardinal Bo. MLI exists to prepare leaders for civil society, business, religious bodies and education, as well as, of course, for government roles. Indeed, he wants MLI to be a training ground for persons who would go out and lead with courage and frankness in all spheres of community, and public life and service. We need to listen to each other, but especially to young people. With these few words, Cardinal Bo declared the Myanmar Leadership Institute open amidst strong applause.
Joseph Jacob SJ
Executive Director, Myanmar Leadership Institute
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