34 Bangladesh, Burma and the Rohingya crisis 69. We questioned the organisation managing DFID’s programme in the Burmese Parliament: The Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD). Its Chief Executive Anthony Smith told us: Democratic governance is an essential part of a country’s development and a parliament is an essential part of any democracy. The parliament needs to play a proper and effective role in representing all the people of the country. It needs to be able to debate all the issues, including the conflict issues that we have heard about. It needs to hold institutions to account, the executive, security forces, et cetera. Without that, you will not have a fully functioning democracy99 70. However as discussed earlier, the Burmese Parliament, in many ways, is not performing these functions nor does it seem likely to in the near future. We asked what evidence or examples there were of a positive impact from the parliamentary strengthening programme in Burma, for example had there been any scrutiny of the Rohingya crisis? However, we have not been provided with any evidence of any serious debate or questions in the Burmese Parliament on the Rohingya crisis. We also asked Anthony Smith whether WFD had considered what conduct or behaviour by the Burmese authorities would be so bad as to cause the programme to be suspended? He said: “What the [WFD] board discussion [has been] trying to assess is whether we are going to help the Rohingya—or any other community that is excluded, persecuted and subject to human rights abuses— more by remaining engaged and trying to build institutions that would challenge that behaviour and change it over time, on the one hand, or by leaving? So far within the board and with all of those other partners, the conclusion is that we should keep trying to build that.”100 We also pursued this with the Minister who said: We are trying to make sure that the programme is shaped to ensure that Parliament communicates more regularly and effectively on the Government’s humanitarian and rehabilitation responses to events, works more closely with civil society, including with Rohingya representatives, and understands more about how other Parliaments have responded to violent conflict.101 71. We asked the Minister whether there were any flames of democracy left in Burma worth fanning? He said: Our estimation is that there are those who are looking forward to a further development in Burma, but, necessarily, the nature of their system makes it extremely difficult for them to self-identify. Our concern is that, if the voice of people who believe in what we believe in—in terms of parliamentary democracy and Parliament acting as opposition and making people like me accountable—is not there, that process will not continue. It is difficult, and I cannot give you a list, but is it worth doing, and are we confident 99 100 101 Q173 Q191 Q265