MDC chief looks ahead to ask when military will quit parliament

Friday, 30 July 2010 12:18 Khaing Suu

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Party leader, poet and author, Wei Mhu Thwin, says the problem with the upcoming elections was not that 25 per cent of parliamentary seats were reserved for military personnel, but that no one knew when they would quit parliament.

Myanmar Democracy Congress (MDC) general secretary Wei Mhu Thwin, aka Kaung Htet, added the main problem for his own party was to collect funds to meet requirements set out under restrictive electoral laws. “The functioning status of the electoral laws is weak”, he said.

MDC, which comprises mainly young people, was on July 5 officially allowed to form as a political party by the junta’s electoral watchdog, the Union Election Commission (UEC), which gave it registration number 34. Although the party intends to contest seats of the People’s and National parliaments in all constituencies, it was still trying to recruit the number of candidates required by the junta’s electoral laws.

The party headquarters is at Shwegondine Tower, in Bahan Township, Rangoon Division, and the party was still preparing to open branch offices across the country, he said.

Wei Mhu Thwin said Burmese people wanted a government elected by the people, but that obstacles to allaying their fears over the process persisted.

He was opposed to some clauses in the 2008 constitution, but hoped that they could be modified in parliament. “Let me give you an example of what I mean. We will try to enact a law that a citizen must not work in more than one ministry”, he said.

The general secretary then revealed some policy intentions. “If the party [MDC] wins in the forthcoming election and can form a government, it will try to be a trustworthy government.”

Other MDC leaders are chairman Kaung Myint Htut (a former political prisoner jailed in 1988), vice-chairman Taung Aye (a Chin politician and businessman), Kyaw Kyaw Min, and former politburo member Kaung Myat Thu (who lives in Britain and writes all the party’s statements).

Biographical notes on Wei Mhu Thwin

Kaung Htet, aka Wei Mhu Thwin (pen name), was born on February 13, 1978 in Pyay in Pegu (Bago) Division. His parents are Maung Maung Ni and Kay Thi Aung, who run a warehouse and a cooking-oil mill. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from Dagon University in Rangoon.