Over five dozen members of the Mon National Party (MNP) have resigned en masse in a show of no confidence.
A total of 63 party members, including a central executive committee member from Kyaikmaraw township, the township office’s vice chair and secretary, as well as members from several surrounding villages, have allegedly all resigned from the party.
U Min Nyan Linn, secretary of the MNP’s Kyaikmaraw township branch, blamed an in ability to merge forces with the other main ethnic Mon party for costing votes in 2015, and limiting both parties’ effectiveness. He says he left the MNP because he saw no political future until the Mon parties present a unified front.
“It won’t be easy in 2020 since I don’t see any prospect for uniting the parties. That’s why we have resigned. I will continue to take part in nationalistic tasks from the literature field,” he said.
In their resignation letters, the members said they do not trust the party leaders, who they blamed for neglecting the desires of the public.
“We didn’t urge the [other] members to resign from the party. We only explained the reasons whywe were resigning. Then they resigned on their own free will,” said Min Nyan Linn.
Nai Chin and Nai Chan Ai Mon, central committee members of MNP, also shared photos of their resignation letters on Facebook.
“The entire [Mon] people should work on establishing a single Mon party. We can’t move forward in this situation now,” said Min Sandar Non, a former central executive committee member of the MNP.
A slew of other resignations and termination spreceded the recent walkouts, with many formermembers joining efforts to forge a new blog representing the Mon people.
The party ousted one of its two sitting hluttawmembers, MP U Min Soe Lin (Ye township 1), onJuly 19, while the MNP’s former vice chair NaiThet Lwin (currently the Union Minister of EthnicAffairs) also resigned from the party.
Members of the other main Mon party, the All Mon Region Democratic Party (AMDP), have followed suit and also left their party to join the efforts to build a new, united political front. U Aung Naing Oo (the Mon State Hluttaw Deputy Speaker) and Nai Auk Sar, also known as Naing Aung Ba, both central executive committee of the AMRDP, were among those to leave.
