New Mon Party Forming for Election

By LAWI WENG

At least 14 Mon community leaders have put together plans to launch a new political party representing the interests of Mon people in Burma in preparation for the 2010 general election, according to a source close to the group.

Calling themselves an “election working committee,” the group currently comprises four former central committee members of the New Mon State Party (NMSP)—Nai Myint Shwe, Nai Lyi Gakao, Nai Tin Aung and Nai Soe Myint—as well as 10 other respected community leaders in Mon State.

The source said the Mon leaders have been meeting at the NMSP office in Moulmein in recent months, but have made no official announcement yet about their new political party because they are waiting for an announcement from the military government with regard to party registration and the conditions for running in next year’s elections.

More NMSP leaders are prepared to resign their positions within the party to join the new election working committee, said the source; however, they are waiting for Naypyidaw to release details of the regulations governing the upcoming election.

The NMSP announced earlier this year that it will not participate in the election; however sources close to the party said it would allow its members to resign to join the election working committee if they wish.

Sources in Moulmein said that the election working committee and some NMSP leaders are currently working together by mobilizing youths in Mon State for the election in 2010.

A leading member of the election working committee said, “Many people come and ask me about our future plans and about our working committee. They are interested in it. But, I can’t tell them very much because we are waiting for the election draft.”

A source close to Nai Tin Aung said that the current strategy is on the right track for the people of Mon State because the NMSP will keep on fighting for liberty with arms, while on the one hand, the election working committee is going to fight on the democratic stage.

Some observers have said that there appears to be a growing tension among members of the NMSP as to whether the party should compete in next year’s election.

Some members reportedly believe the election offers an opportunity while others view the process as a sham and say the election will not be free and fair.

Nai Hang Tha, a secretary of the NMSP, told The Irrawaddy that the new constitution denies fundamental ethnic rights and will allow the military to hold onto power.

In June, the party ordered its judicial offices, which are based in Burmese government-controlled areas, to move their offices to within the NMSP-administered zone. The move came soon after the junta’s southeast regional command in Moulmein told NMSP leaders to accept the deadline for integrating their soldiers into the regime’s border guard force.

Sources say the majority of the party’s members don’t want to revoke the ceasefire agreement which they signed with the junta in 1995; however, they also don’t want to transform their troops into border guards.

The NMSP’s military wing, the Mon National Liberation Army, is estimated to have about 700 troops.