Nai Ngwe Thein was elected as the new chairman of the Mon National Democratic Front (MNDF), after the reformed leaderships held the party meeting yesterday in Moulmein, capital of Mon State according to party leaders.

Nai Ngwe Thein (Photo: Kaowao)

Dr. Min Soe Lin, who is the secretary of MNDF, said that Nai Ngwe Thein is going to lead the role of the chairman for the party and that Nai Tun Thein has resigned.

“He is old and his health has deteriorated, he often forgets things. Therefore, we decided to change our leadership,” he said. Nai Tun Thein is 95 years old and Nai Ngwe Thein is only 89 years old.

Nai Tin Aung, who was a former member of the executive committee of New Mon State Party (NMSP) was appointed as a new joint chairman of the party.

There are 5 former leaders of NMSP who have been appointed as executive committee members of MNDF including, Nai Tin Aung, Nai Lyi Tama, Nai Soe Myit, Nai Thar, and Nai Kho Seik.

A former member of NMSP said, “I feel this party has more space than AMDP (All Mon Regions Democracy Party).”

The MNDF participated in the 1990 election, winning five seats. The Burmese junta disbanded the party at that time, sentencing four elected representatives to long prison terms.  They were accused of blocking the ceasefire talks between the NMSP and the Burmese military in 1998.

The MNDF will have in total 45 members of the executive and central committee. In the past, the party has not taken a leadership role as the party was disbanded and could not be active legally.

“We are not in a hurry to register our party because we do not trust the government very much. We are going to wait and see what happens in the future. We will decide whether to register the after Hillary Rodham Clinton visit in Burma,” said Dr. Min Soe Lin.

The Mon may have two political parties in future elections in Mon State, but the leaders of MNDF said that they do not want to make the Mon people confused between the two parties.  They intend to negotiate with the All Mon Regions Democracy Party, which ran for election last year, to have one party run for election in Mon State.

“We will form a committee after we open our party to negotiate with AMDP. If we can join one party, needless to say we are going to have a lot of power and our people may not confuse it,” he said.

About 100 Mon community leaders joint the meeting that held in Moulmein yesterday, which discussed to change new leadership and also added more members of the party in order to fulfill the strength of the party.

From the meeting, some leaders said that the National League for Democracy (NLD) made a littler early for decision to run party’s registration while they viewed that the Burmese government still mention there was no conscience political prisoners in Burma and still detained the political prisoners and even there was fighting in Kachin area.

Dr. Min Kyi Win, who is the join the secretary of MNDF, said, “We have different view points from the NLD for the ethnic issues.

“From my personal view point, I viewed that the NLD do not care a lot about the ethnic issues. They run party’s registration that they only care about their party’s interest,” he said.

“We are ethnic organization and also member of UNA (the United Nationalities Alliance). There are leaders of SNLD (the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy) like Hkun Htun Oo has not released from prison yet. We need to care about this,” said Dr. Min Soe Lin.

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