‘We’ll Scrap Our Party if That’s What Suu Kyi Wants’

Q: How is your party doing in terms of its budget and manpower?

A: Our party can’t even finance the campaign costs of our candidates, who are mostly self-supporting. Our headquarters has no money at all. But in terms of manpower, small groups of party members are touring villages and towns for the campaign.

Q: Is it true that Myanmar Egress has financially backed your party? Why did you accept candidates close to that organization?

A: No one representing Myanmar Egress has given us any money. But certain individuals, like U Hla Maung Shwe [vice president of Myanmar Egress and the brother of a high-ranking military official], have personally helped some of our candidates financially. Why should we worry about Egress? Is it trading in opium? If Egress offered to donate money to us as a legal organization, we would not decline it. Also, regarding our candidates, please remember that we had only 15 days to register them. We struggled to get through that process. There are two or three candidates who joined us because Egress told them that we are a pro-democracy party.

Q: Do you think the public should be clearly informed of which groups you are affiliated with and why some of your candidates are accepting funds from the Egress?

A: Yes, the media should clarify these things for the public. But why should we publicize who is giving us such and such an amount of money while all the other parties are silent about this? After all, we are allowed to accept clean money from legal organizations within the country. We cannot reveal these issues before the election because people who are helping us may face threats. You know, there are parties linked to the ruling authorities. Through these links, these parties are receiving money from organizations like the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The media should point out these things instead of targeting us for accepting clean money from ordinary civilians.

Q: Does your party share the political views of Egress? For example, one of its leaders, Nay Win Maung, recently stated that a majority of Burma’s population supported the 2008 Constitution.

A: What Nay Win Maung says is his own personal view only. It has nothing to do with us. I don’t know what survey that is based on. All we know about Egress is that it supports good governance, does capacity-building training and sends students abroad. But as for us, we have repeatedly said that the Constitution was forcibly concocted and is undemocratic. We have made it clear that our policies are based on the principles of social liberalism and a market-oriented mixed economy that will lead to individual property rights, a full-blown market economy and democratic norms.

Q: Do you think your policies will really be achievable after the election?

A: That depends on whether our country’s revenues from natural resources are managed transparently. We will try to triple the current 3 percent budget for education and health. We will try to do that from within parliament.

Q: But the parliament will likely be dominated by the regime-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and other pro-regime parties.

A: We cannot take it for granted that the USDP members of parliament will call all the shots. We have recently formed an alliance with five other pro-democracy parties. This alliance is contesting 250 seats in the upper and lower houses of parliament. If we win all of these seats, we would all be in a viable position in the parliament.

Q: What is the basis of this alliance? Isn’t it just a symbolic gesture of solidarity?

A: Our major allies are the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party and the Union Democratic Party, based in Rangoon. The reason behind this alliance is that we want to send a message to the public that we are all pro-democracy parties. If the people want to walk on the path to democracy, they should vote for us.

We also want to make it clear that we will work on the basis of equality for all ethnic peoples, acknowledging their aspirations to self-determination. We also share the view that we can strive toward the well-being of all the people only if we have a system of checks and balances governing the judicial, legislative and executive powers.