Legends leave their mark on Myanmar politics

Aung San’s daughter Aung San Suu Kyi is well known internationally since the 1990 election, which her National League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide over the National Unity Party (NUP) – previously Ne Win’s Burma Socialist Program Party.

Daw Than Than Nu, a daughter of ex-PM U Nu, entered politics in the 2010 general election. And again, she has brought her father’s legacy to the scene. She is the secretary-general of the Democratic Party, which won three seats in the lower house in the previous election in 2010 and is expected to get more this time.

“Times have changed. The generation of parents might know my father, but the new generation might know others and help others. I never hoped being a daughter of my father would help [to win the election],” she said.

“My father told me long ago that one day I [would] have my own political party and enter politics but don’t expect rewards because you are U Nu’s daughter. Don’t start with his name,” she quoted him as saying.

Than Than Nu formed the Democratic Party with U Thu Wai, who is the chairman of the party and used to work with her father U Nu. 

The party has 51 candidates contesting the election, mostly in Yangon, and expects to get some 25 seats in parliament.

Thu Wai said no single party would win an overwhelming majority tomorrow and small parties like his were important and decisive for the big parties if they needed to form a government.

The country’s third-largest party, the National Unity Party agreed, saying neither the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party nor the opposition NLD would win an absolute majority.

The NUP has been involved in politics since the 1960s. A member of its central executive committee, U Han Shwe, believes that a landslide victory could develop into a “tyrant majority”.

The NLD defeated the NUP in the 1990 election. The party, which has a solid background connected with the Ne Win regime, got only 12 seats. However, the junta refused to hand power to the NLD, leaving the country under military rule until the 2010 election.

The NLD did not participate in the previous election. The USDP got an absolute majority in parliament while the NUP got 64 seats in all houses in 2010.

This time the NUP has 752 candidates contesting – for the the lower house, the upper houses, state and regional houses, and the ethnic house. 

Of them, 85 are women while many are religious including Muslims and Christians.

“But we don’t highlight the religion since it should be separate from politics,” said Han Shwe.

Despite its socialist background, the NUP’s political platform is a multi-party system with a market economy, he said. 

One of the party’s attractive policies relates to the land, as it had helped farmers become landowners in many areas throughout the countries, he said.

 

Stay tuned for Nation TV’s news roundups of Myanmar’s general election tomorrow in English – at 3pm to 3.15pm; 4.45pm to 5pm; and 6.45pm to 7pm on the digital Channel 22.