Does the NDF have any plan to form an alliance?
A: I think it would be pretty difficult to form an alliance, since we don't have much time left. In principle, we would prefer not to compete directly with political parties that have a genuine will to create a true democratic Burma, so we will try to consult with them as much as we can in the time we have left.
Q: Which parties will you consult with?
A: There won't be many. We still have to make decision in our party as to which parties we are going to consult. We will also be learning about other parties, too.
Q: Which ethnic parties do you think you might cooperate with, and what kind of policies should they hold [as potential partners]?
A: Our position on ethnic parties will be different from that of the NLD in the 1990 election. What I mean is that we don't have any plan to heavily compete against ethnic parties in different states and ethnic-controlled territories. We just want them to know what they should be doing and do what they have to do dutifully. Of course, exceptions exist in some places. For example, there are some areas in some states where we have supporters. In such cases, we will ask our members there to consult and cooperate with pro-democracy and ethnic parties focusing on those areas.
Q: The EC that has yet to approve the registrations of the Kachin parties, including the one led by Dr. Tu Ja. What do you think about this?
A: It is their parties' own affairs and this issue should be resolved by the parties and the EC.
Q: What is your position on national reconciliation?
A: National reconciliation is the main issue and it is an essential part of our party's policy. We have already accepted that without national reconciliation, problems between ethnic groups and races cannot be settled and a peaceful co-existence will not be possible in the long run. We will pay attention to this issue as much as we are allowed.
Q: It was recently reported that you still support Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Is that right?
A: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has worked with us and led us for more than 20 years. We could never question her good will for the country. She is a leader that we will always respect.
Q: How will you maintain the policy of her party, the NLD?
A: We have worked for the NLD for over 20 years. It is not a stranger to us. However, since it decided not to register for the coming election, its legal status became null and void on May 6. One can't possibly argue that from that time on, no matter how much we wished to continue working as a political party, we couldn't do so in practice. We were with the NLD until it was dissolved. After that, we didn't see ourselves as related to the NLD anymore. Whether or not the NLD will continue to exist as a political party is up to other NLD members.
Q: Do you mean the NDF's policy doesn't have any relation to the NLD's Shwegodaing Declaration?
A: The Shwegodaing Declaration was mainly written by Ko Khin Maung Swe and me, together with Ko Sein Hla Oo. We fully believe in the policies in the declaration. Today, we are talking about the declaration as it was written and don't define it as we want. We said in the declaration that we need to resolve political problems through dialogue. This will always be true. The need for dialogue never dies. As long as we have differences, between two persons or among many people, we will need dialogue. We will always uphold this principle.
With regard to the election, we didn't say in the declaration that we were not going to contest the election. We said that we would consider participating in it if our conditions were met, but we didn't say that we wouldn't compete if these conditions were not met. In fact, there is no need to define our statement that way. If we said it like that, it would just be a wishful definition. We stressed in the declaration that we would never abandon our people—that the NLD would never leave the democracy struggle and an election was a political landmark that we had to go through on our way to democracy.
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