Dr. Than Nyein graduated from medical school in 1963 and worked as a civil servant until 1988, when he was forced to resign due to his involvement in the popular uprising of that year. He joined the National League for Democracy (NLD) in January 1989 and was elected as the member of parliament for Rangoon's Kyauktan Township the following year. He was arrested for the first time in 1997. In 2004, he was arrested again and incarcerated until September 2008.
In May, he co-founded the National Democratic Force (NDF) after the the NLD was forcibly dissolved for refusing to take part in this year's election. He is now the chairman of the NDF, which registered on June 24 to compete in the election. The party's application was approved by the Election Commission (EC) on July 9.
Irrawaddy reporter Ko Htwe interviewed Dr. Than Nyein recently to discuss his party's policies and future activities.
Question: How do you think you will do in the election?
Answer: It is very unlikely that we will win in a landslide as we did in 1990, but we will do our best under the present circumstances.
Q: Why do you think an overwhelming victory is unlikely?
A: There are many limitations. The first is time. Our party registration was just approved by the EC. As the election is to be held within this year, we will have very little time for campaigning. Another one is financial constraints. Candidate fees are [US $500], much higher than they were in the last election, and it is very difficult to find funding.
Another problem is the media. We have not received fair treatment. We have been interviewed many times by the domestic media, but much of what we said was censored, and some media have even rejected us. We have relied on the domestic media to reach out to people, but it has not been as effective as we expected. The exiled media has been biased, too. For instance, some media groups said they wanted to speak to us about our party, but in fact, they were against us, so it became more like rumor mongering than a real discussion. I think we need to be careful about dealing with this kind of situation.
Q: Which parties will be your main opponents?
A: Any party that competes with us wherever we contest the election will be our main opponent. I can't say anything for sure right now, as we still can't say exactly where we will contest and don't know which other parties will contest where.
Q: Does this mean that the NDF will only contest the election in some areas?
A: We can't work equally in all areas throughout the country. We don't have enough candidates. We have strong supporters in some places and we are not so popular in some other places. The strength of local support for our political course is more important than anything we can do, so we will contest the election in areas where our supporters can work efficiently.
Q: What do you think of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP)?
A: Well, I believe everybody knows the background of the USDP. It was spawned by the Union Solidarity and Development Association, which is a government-backed organization. It is not very nice to see that incumbent ministers are currently involved in the USDP. The Tatmadaw (armed forces) has already taken 25 percent of the parliament seats. What we want is a fair competition for the rest of the seats with equal participation by all. That's how it should be if we are genuinely marching towards democracy.
Q: Do you think there's a level playing field?
A: Everybody knows whether it is level or not. There's no need to say anything more about that.
Q: During the 1990 election period, political parties formed alliances.
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