Q: What does it take to elect women as leaders in the New Mon State Party (NMSP)? A: Party leaders will not elect a woman because most representatives are men. I am the only woman on the Central Committee [CC]. [Note: there are nine members in the Central Executive Committee (CEC), elected from 35 CC members in the party]. Women could only be leaders if men choose us. In the party, the members are majority men and a very few women. Electing women depends on the representatives at the Party Congress [held every three years, due to be held this December] and their opinions. We also have a plan with the Mon Women Organization [MWO] to report to the party leaders in the [CEC] about a potential women quorum in [CC] members in the election as a quota system to promote women participation in a compulsory ways. Will they [the representatives of Congress] follow a quota system? We also consider about it in [MWO] meeting but didn’t propose it yet. Even the [CEC] members have opinion to consider more women number in [CC], but it never achieved after the majority men representatives oppose about it. They did not like this quota system.
Q: Why are male party members opposed to women leaders? A: They [male representatives] think women can’t be sustainable on the long-term political career [because they will quit politics to have families], and they think we have less commitment. They also discussed their opinions like this in the [previous] party conference. But I don’t know the details of the discussion in the previous conference and this opinion is still brought up in subsequent years until this coming Congress. The majority of [CC] members did not agree on a women quorum in the [CC] and they will oppose the same idea in the Congress again. They gave reason that women are not strong, less experience and cannot facilitate duties given by the party well. How do I respond to them when there is only a small number of women in the Congress?
Q: What is your opinion on the recent election of a woman as the general secretary of the Karen National Union? A: It is great. I like it because the [KNU] wants to promote women, and women also can take responsibility like men. I think it is great because women also have experience and skills. Our leader will consider about it now because the KNU dared enough to offer high-level duties to women. It will be good if the number of women increase in leading roles. Our Mon women also will get a lot of moral encouragement even if many are not party members. I think I am not the only woman who supports this change in the KNU and it would be all Mon women.
Q: What qualities should women work on developing so they can be leaders? A: To have experience in the leading role and to serve any duties. Accordingly to the complaints from the male representatives, sometimes women have problems with their families. Many female party members could not give full time to serve in the party and are busy with family life. That’s why they say they can’t elect women as a leader. Women must sacrifice full time if they would like to be a leader. They have to be committed, share their ideas, brave at speaking and brave in competition. Men also can get them to lead. If women give only a little time in their duties, other party members will not accept them as leaders. It also depends on work experience, but I don’t mean to they have to have about 20-30 years experience. It means to have some years work experience, progressive ideas and knowledge. The KNU chose woman as a general secretary because I think she has both work experience and progressive ideas.
Q: What are the opinions of top level party leaders on the election of women leaders? A: Currently, there is only one woman member among 35 [CC] members. Why they do not choose women leaders? We should ask to clarify. But in this time, I think the [CEC, top level] members would like to have women in the political leading role and will encourage representatives at the Congress by pointing out the change in the KNU, because women are appropriate in a leading role. But it is very difficult to set up women quorum as a new law in the party because the current [CC] members can’t decide this alone. Every change must be decided at the level of a Party Congress and a majority vote by representatives. Women can participate at election as the same level like other representatives at the Congress. But it depends on the representatives and they will look the experience of women serving in the party for many years and how we are sacrifice.
Q: What criteria are used to choose women leaders? A: There is no detailed principle for this. But as I said, they consider how many years they have served in the party. In MWO, the organization has [CC] members and [CEC] members. Both [CEC] and [CC] members can participate to be elected as NMSP [CC] members in the Congress. For example, at the Mon Education Department, if a woman is a Committee member in the Mon National Education Committee, she has a chance to compete in elections to be elected as [CC] members. Similarly in District Administration offices of the NMSP, if someone is in a District Administration Committee, she can be elected a [CC] member, but if she is in Township administration level, she may not have this opportunity.
Q: What kind of experience is necessary for women to be elected to the Central Committee? A: They have to serve in the party at least 5 to 7 years. Most members in the District level administration, education committee, and health committee already had over 5 years experience. Some had over 10 years service and experience. If they are in the level of these committee members, they can be participated in elections to be [CC] members.
Q: What is your opinion on the minority status of women leaders in ethnic political groups in general? A: Women have been less involved in the resistance movement since the beginning. Most women involved in the movement previously resigned from organizations. Recently, the NMSP has special battalions for female fighters, and women are serving several departments. But after they married, busy with family affairs, they resigned from the party. Women involved in less numbers since the beginning and later women resignation from the movement affected the current opportunities for women to have leadership roles. But it depends on the approach of each organization to promote the role of women. Currently women leaders are very few chances in all ethnic groups except the KNU. We can see some women leaders, but only in KNU.
Q: After the KNU elected woman as Central Committee member, the NMSP followed suit and elected a woman to the Central Committee. Recently, the KNU elected a woman as General Secretary. Do you think a similar development will be possible in the NMSP? A: It takes many steps to be General Secretary of a political party. The party will choose only after women become [CC] members of the party. For example, there are 9 [CEC] members in the party. First, the [CC] members elected these 9 members and then the General Secretary. Currently there is only me as a woman [CC] member. I couldn’t imagine being elected to the [CEC] because [CC] members will not elect me accordingly to my work experience. Therefore it is not easy to be elected as General Secretary.
Q: What problems have you faced during your time in charge of the NMSP Education Department? A: Before I become in charge of the Education Department, I was involved in MWO as a chairwoman. But the party leaders had said they didn’t want me to take responsibility in MWO after I took charge of the Education Department because they would like me to do more at Mon education activities. I feel unhappy for that. I would like to be along with MWO as a woman even I took responsibility in Education Department. But they promoted me as a patron in MWO. I have many problems because Education Department have being spent too much expenses, and the administrative costs increase every year because it needs to promote for children and adults alike. The important thing is money. If you don’t have money, you can’t do jobs. And we depend on donors for funding. We know most of our people are not literate because they are missing education from the schools. That’s why we would like to do more. The problems is we don’t have money and we are not professional even if we serve in the Education Department. We try ourselves. We need more educated person to involve at education activities.
Q: What are the strengths of the Education Department? A: Most children become literate, pass the high school standard and graduate from University in Mon State. At the border, some students can upgrade their education and some clever ones can attend universities with support of scholarship in foreign countries. Even though there are much problems with the operating of Mon National Schools, we can increase the literacy level in the rural communities.
Q: What you would like to say to Mon women? A: I would like Mon women to try hard like women in other ethnic organizations. I would like them to get involved serving in every NMSP department, including the political section because then the party leaders can consider the role of women when they make decisions. For examples, there are no women in the justice department of the NMSP, it is hard to seek just and fair decisions for some criminal cases to women. That’s why I would like more Mon women to participate in the political activities, so one day they can become political leaders.
