No agreement on venue reached yet for pending meeting with NLD and MUP

An agreed upon meeting between the National League for Democracy and the Mon Unity Party scheduled for Monday, January 4, 2021 has run into difficulty.  There is not yet an agreement between the parties as to a location. 

“We suggested meeting at our office or at a mediated place. It is not possible to have the meeting at NLD’s State Office. They have not responded yet where to meet,” said Nai Laye Tamah, Joint Secretary (1) of MUP. 

The NLD informed the MUP the meeting would take place at the NLD Mon State Office at 9 AM on January 4. 

The NLD Central government has appointed 3 Committee members – Dr. Aung Moe Nyo, Daw Nang Khin Htwe Myint, and U Inn Htong Ka Naw San — to meet with the ethnic political parties. 

The purpose of these meetings is for these  committee members to listen to the political parties’ concerns and discuss factors that can be negotiated.  This would be considered a negotiated preliminary agreement, but the NLD Central Executive Meeting holds the power for final approvals. 

It is likely that under any new configuration of the government that might  involve representatives from ethnic parties, those representatives to be selected will have the necessary qualifications, will respect NLD policies, and be accepted by the voting public. 

The absence of clarity as to where the meeting will take place, appears not to be the only problem. 

“For us, we would like to meet between the parties. We do not accept having the elected representatives at the meeting. Yet they agreed to meet party -to-party and with our executive committee members,” continued Nai Laye Tamah. 

MNA could not be reached to provide a comment  on the outstanding meeting issues.

On January 1, the NLD representatives met with representatives from ethnic political parties in Kachin State.  That meeting included the Kachin State People Party, the New Democracy Party (Kachin) and the Lisu National Development Party.  The meetings took place at the NLD State Office in MyitKyiNa, the capital of Kachin State. 

Dr. Manam Tu Ja, Chair of the Kachin State Peoples Party, provided a comment relevant to the issues underlying these meetings.  He said in an interview with RFA, “It’s necessary to share the power of law-making and governance between the central [government] and [the] state. …in accordance with the federal policy, 3-sectors, including government, enforcement and judicial [branches] should be shared. There needs to be a check and balance on these. So, it is best not to appoint but to share the power, not just for one party, but share the power with other parties.  [It is] like sharing responsibilities, for the power of law making, it is the Hluttaw speaker and for the governance, it is the State Chief Minister.”