At the ceremony, the mediation team tasked with facilitating Mon political unification, comprised of approximately 30 senior monks, questioned the two parties on their progress. The influential senior monks, including Ven. Palita, want the AMRDP and MDP to form one party as soon as possible.

Monks have been pressuring the parties to unify for several months. According to one monk facilitator, although party leaders promised mediators they would unite, they never had a concrete plan for unification.

MDP Chairman Nai Ngwe Thein said, “We are all listening to the voices of the honored monks and the people, and we will try to have the two parties become one. Not only Mons are united, but all ethnic nationalities must finally unite.”

AMRDP Chairman Nai Januu Mon stated that the two parties must join together by 2014, before the 2015 election, but that it would benefit the people more if they could unify earlier.

According to AMRDP committee members in Kamawet Sub-Township, their committee is so eager for the political groups to merge that they put the two parties’ representatives in their sub-town into a shared office building.

The conflict between the two party leaders has been ongoing since before 2010, when leaders split over whether to contest in that year’s elections. Almost all of the current MDP leaders opposed the 2008 constitution and boycotted the 2010 elections.

AMRDP assert that they participated in the elections for the sake of Mon voters, stating that without party representation, Mon people would lose their right to vote for their national party.

Nearly 200 people attended the opening ceremony, along with Karen State Ethnic Minister Nai Chit Oo and leaders from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), National Unity Party (NUP), and National League for Democracy (NLD).