Jorn , Hong Dein : The Burmese government’s Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has been discretely collecting new member signatures from residents of Mudon and Thanphyuzayart Townships, Mon State, since last week.
Adding their signatures to the party’s lists makes civilian’s members of the USDP, and serves as an agreement that signers will vote for the party in the upcoming Burmese elections.
According to a USDP member from the area, “the residents have to sign the paper, and the party will make them party member IDs”. This member added that while party recruiters initially have attempted to persuade residents to sign by promising party benefits, many recruiters have often resorted to forcing civilians into signing party lists through threats.
Rather than publicly announcing its attempts to register more members in the two townships, the USDP has been quietly persuading friends and relatives to add their signatures to its voter lists.
According to a businessman in Mudon town, individuals who agree to sign the USDP’s membership list gain significant advantages. USDP members can ask the party to help them overcome legal striations barring them from setting up illegal Thai cordless phones in their villages, playing the lottery, gambling on football, or opening businesses and shops.
A Mon resident in Mudon Township opined that Burma’s upcoming elections cannot be truly democratic because the USDP, as the Burmese junta’s proxy party, has been forcing civilians to sign the party’s membership lists through threats.
Mon State has been the site of aggressive campaigning by the two widely-acknowledged frontrunner’s in the 2010 Burmese elections, the government-controlled USDP, which bears close connections to the former government-run civilian group the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), and the National Unity Party (NUP) formerly known as the Burmese Socialist Programme Party, which controlled Burma for over two decades. In particular, sources report that the two parties have recently begun to target Mon areas by insisting that they can each provide valid representation for Mon causes in the upcoming elections.
USDP has five strong members running for constituencies in each major village in Mudon and Thanphyuzayart Township, and these members have focused on persuading their families, friends, and acquaintances to sign the party’s voter list.
Despite the fact that the party has not announced an official public campaign for the area, field reporters claim that on September 17th, a few of these USDP members in Mudon Township donned traditional Mon dress, and held and impromptu campaign, telling residents “we are also Mons. Please vote for us.”
The events of the 17th were supplemented by a visit from the Burmese government’s Minister of Mining Brig. Gen Ohm Myint, to USDP members in Mudon. Gen Ohm Myint reportedly announced that the only all-Mon party contesting in the upcoming elections, the All Mon Regions Democracy Party (AMDP) was ineffective.
The General told audiences that the AMDP, unlike the USDP, would be incapable of setting up a new government should they win the election, unlike the USDP; he also emphasized the AMDP’s failure to contribute money to local philanthropic causes, while the USDP, in the form of the USDA, had been responsible for building bridged and highways, constructing pagodas, and establishing schools.
The USDP’s main rival in the elections, the NUP, is reportedly adopting similar tactics. Sources report that in the NUP’s recent campaign featured candidates insisting that “they were also Mon, so vote for them”. Many Mon State voters remain suspicious of the party, who controlled Burma for 26 years after being established by dictator Ne Win in 1962; many locals referenced the NUP as a government agent responsible for taxing rice farmers up until 2005. Despite this distrust, sources indicate that the party’s resistance on being Mon has confused many voters, who are attempting to select the appropriate party to represent their ethnic group.
