Victorious Mon party from 1990 election supports NMSP refusal to compete in 2010

http://www.monnews-imna.com/newsupdate.php?ID=1302

Mon 26 Jan 2009, IMNA/Kaowao
The Mon National Democratic Front (MNDF) supports the New Mon State Party’s (NMSP) recent announcement that it will not participate in the 2010 election, say sources in Burma and Thailand. Their reluctance to participate, however, raises questions about who will represent Mon people in Burma’s soon-to-be-formed parliament.

After over two weeks of deliberations in the NMSP’s 7th Party Congress, in the third week of January the NMSP announced it will not participate in the election. It left a small potential for participation, however, contingent on revision of Burma’s constitution by Burma’s State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) junta. The constitution was approved by a referendum in May 2008, though both the document and the referendum process have been roundly condemned as undemocratic.

Speaking from Rangoon, MNDF vice chairman Nai Ngwe Thein voiced his party’s support for the NMSP decision. “The NMSP and MNDF have the same goals now,” he said. “For the MNDF, the election committee has not distributed rules about the election. So we are not sure if we will participate in the election or not. If the Burmese government uses the 2008 constitution, we will not participate in the election. But if the SPDC enters into tripartite dialogue and drafts a new constitution, we will participate.”



It is unclear, however, whether the SPDC will be willing to enter into tripartite dialogue or amend its constitution before 2010, when Burma is scheduled to hold its first elections in two decades. Burma’s last election took place in 1990, though the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), pre-cursor to the SPDC, annulled the results. The MNDF won five seats in the 1990 election, though it saw most of its elected members of parliament imprisoned rather than sat in parliament.

Lack of participation by the NMSP and MNDF leaves a vacuum in politics in Mon areas, raising questions about who will compete for the seats and, eventually, represent Mon people.

For some, participation in the election is to do the bidding of the SPDC. “We welcome the NMSP decision not to participate in the 2010 election,” said MNDF-Liberated Area (MNDF-LA) general secretary Nai Aut Dhar. An MNDF member of parliament-elect who fled arrest formed the MNDF-LA in Thailand during September 2008. Any group in a democracy has a right to form a party, added Nai Aut Dhar, but it will not benefit the Mon people.

Important Mon monks in Mon State also said they support the NMSP decision, with reservations. “The NMSP and MNDF have the same goals, and Mon monks mostly agree with them,” said one of Mon State’s most widely respected senior monks, who is a member of both the Mon Affairs Union and the All Mon Monks Association. His identity is being withheld for security reasons. “But Mon people need Mon parliament members so they can work on behalf of Mon people,” he added. The monk said that his viewpoints were widely held by monks he had spoken with, 3 of who are equally respected members of the sangha in Mon State. The identities of these monks are also being withheld for security.

The senior monk felt that the Maha Sangha Nayaka Council provides indication of the need for Mon representation in Burma’s incipient parliament. The Maha Sangha Nayaka Council is an association of 47 monks that determines much of official SPDC policy on religious affairs. There is only one Mon member of the Sangha Nai Yaka, the senior monk said, but he has been able to ensure that monastery examinations can be conducted in the Mon language.

A member of a Mon culture association in Thanbyuzayat Township, however, questioned whether Mon representatives in a parliament formed under the current constitution would have any real ability to look after the interests of Mon people. Even if a Mon party participates in the election, he said, they could only win a limited number of seats and would have nothing but very limited power.

A Mon resident in Thailand, near Three Pagodas Pass, meanwhile, dismissed the importance of the NMSP’s decision on the election entirely. “Although the NMSP has had a ceasefire for over 13 years, they have not protected the Mon people,” he said. “They did just a few things in education, health and regional development. But the NMSP is not able to talk about political problems with the SPDC. If they participate in the election or not, it will not matter. The NMSP can just hold their ceasefire, they cannot do anything else.”