Irrawaddy: Call to reorganize NLD garners support, questions – Arkar Moe

Irrawaddy: Call to reorganize NLD garners support, questions – Arkar Moe
Thu 17 Dec 2009
Filed under: Inside Burma
NLD leaders embrace Aung San Suu Kyi’s call to reorganize Burma’s most prestigious opposition party, while raising questions about timing and and other matters.However, the party now faces difficult questions of how quickly and extensively the leadership structure can be reorganized, replacing long-serving leaders now in their 80s and 90s and how will such changes affect its decision on whether or not to take part in the 2010 national election?




Among the issues within the NLD have been differences of views between younger and more senior party members in terms of aggrersive promotion of the party’s interest throughout the country and its participation in the upcoming election. In recent years, the regime closed NLD offices throughout the country, threatening its survival as a viable opposition group, and arrested and jailed many party members.

On Wednesday, Suu Kyi called for a reorganization of the central executive committee (CEC) after meeting with three elderly and ailing senior leaders.

NLD spokesman Khin Maung Swe confirmed to The Irrawaddy on Thursday that most NLD offices outside of Rangoon are closed. “There are many difficulties in holding a nationwide meeting,” he said.

He said the central executive committe can be reorganized more effectively.

The NLD has not held a nationwide party gathering for at least a decade because of harassment by the authorities and other setbacks. Although younger party members recently called for party meetings across the country, the CEC did not authorize the move, sources said.

Political observers inside Burma have said the NLD must strengthen its presence in the countryside to maintain its popularity and influence, particular ahead of the 2010 general election.

Myat Hla,74, the NLD chairperson in Pegu and an elected representative of the people’s parliament, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday, “I welcome Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s calls. Most NLD CEC members are not functioning effectively now. If the NLD does not reorganize, it will lose its leadership role.”

Senior party leader Win Tin told The Irrawaddy, “I agree that the NLD needs to reorganize, but, it won’t be easy to carry out all in short time.”

Moe Zaw Oo, secretary 2 of the Foreign Affairs Department of the National League for Democracy—Liberated Area (NLD-LA), told The Irrawaddy on Thursday: “It’s high time to reform, and I welcome Suu Kyi‘s call. It’s natural that there are different views between older members and youths. But finally we must all be united in the best interests of the NLD.”

The NLD should hold a nationwide meeting, he said, but the military government would probably not allow it.

In November 2009, NLD members from Pegu and Mandalay divisions sent a joint letter calling for a national conference to debate the issue of the NLD’s role in next year’s election.

The letter also called for the resignation of two elderly NLD leaders.

Recently, members of the youth wing of the party voiced ideological differences publically, saying the main objective of forming the NLD in 1988 was to bring about democracy and positive change in the country. They said that instead the party had drifted into a “survival” mode.

Responding to the criticism, some members said the party reversed its so-called “survival” policy, noting that in 2008, it rejected the junta’s call to withdraw NLD statements that criticized the constitutional referendum.

The NLD wrote to the Election Commission on Nov. 16 saying that under the election law it had the authority to reorganize its party.