USDP to extend its campaign to urban areas of Mon State

Friday, 30 July 2010 17:51 Kyaw Kha

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party is soon to start electoral campaigning in urban areas of Mon State after having run campaigns in rural areas of the state since April, a party leader said.

The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), led by Prime Minister Thein Sein, has reportedly received preferential treatment on the campaign trail and has been canvassing in the state’s rural areas even before the party was formed and registered.

“Currently, we are conducting electoral campaigns in the countryside. Later we will move our campaign to the urban areas of Mon State,” a campaign organiser said. We already have promoters in every village, township and district, so we don’t have any problems in our campaigning.”

The progenitor of the USDP, the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), was founded in 1993 with junta leader Senior General Than Shwe as patron. The often violent nationalist social organisation, often compared to Hitler’s Brown Shirts, was transformed into a political party on July 6, with 17 executive members resigning from the military, including the current prime minister, who took the helm.

The USDA had 15,421 offices across the country and more than 24 million members, according to a report from the association. But, when it was transformed into a political party, the USDA removed students and government employees, bringing its reported numbers to about eight million party members. The divisional party leader refused to confirm the figure, saying it was difficult to estimate.

The admission fee was 1,000 Kyats, which gave party coffers 8 billion Kyats, critics said.

Tin Soe Moe Naing, a party canvasser in Mon State, said the USDP had promised the public infrastructure projects such as paved roads and repaired bridges.

“We have just removed USDA signboards at offices in every village and township, and are prepared to install USDP signboards,” he said.

The party’s main rivals in the state were the National Unity Party (NUP) and the All Mon Regions Democratic Party (AMRDP), USDP leaders said.

“They are just trying to establish their electoral campaigns but we have been out there for months so our party is well known,” a township level campaigner told Mizzima. “But people will choose the parties they like. Even siblings have different personal preferences.”

On July 20, Deputy Minister of Education Brigadier-General Aung Myo Min urged students from the University of Foreign Languages in Rangoon to vote for the junta-backed party in the forthcoming election, amid warnings of possible bloodshed, causing attendees to feel uneasy.

AMRDP chairman Naing Ngwe Thein said though it was unable to spend money to pave roads and repair bridges like the USDP, Mon people would support his party.

“The money that USDP has spent to pave roads is not their own money. So, we can’t imitate them,” Naing Ngwe Thein said. “And it alone has freedom to conduct electoral campaigns … run campaigns anywhere and influence wards’ peace and development councils. For us, we have to obey the rules established by Union Election Commission.”

“We can’t promise to dig wells or pave roads … Those activities are beyond our abilities. So before our campaign in rural areas, we visit monasteries first. Then, we have to promote our party door-to-door. Anyway, people support us”, he added.

Khin Ohnmar, chairman of the Network for Democracy and Development (NDD), a Thailand-based organisation, told Mizzima that, “The USDP received preference to other political parties because it’s not just a political party. In fact, they are dictators with the masks of a political party so they can do whatever they want”.

The NDD published a book about the junta-backed USDA in 1998.

Some political parties were dreaming that they could modify the unjust constitution in parliament after this year’s election, but the junta’s electoral laws were one-sided, so they had no chance, Khin Ohnmar added.

“SPDC [the Burmese ruling military junta] have made sure that their ally will win in the forthcoming election. They have used dishonest methods including one-sided laws to win the result they seek,” he said. “So in parliament, no one will be allowed to oppose them. If someone [does] … they will find a way to punish this person.”