The National Unity Party (NUP), which supports Burma’s military government, is growing summer paddy in an attempt to build support for the coming election, say sources in Mudon Township.
Beginning last week, NUP members began attempting to cultivate summer paddy on 10-acre plots in summer paddy zones near the Win-pha-non Dam in Taung-pa, Htone-mum, Kwan-kabue, and Doe-mar villages.
Summer paddy is a contentious issue in the area. Every year, farmers are ordered to plant paddy during the hot season as part of the Burmese government’s “2 crops policy.” Farmers complain that the hot weather is unsuitable to growing rice, and many refuse to plant the crop though they risk having their land seized. Others plant as ordered, but find themselves mired in debt cycles as their investments in the doomed crop eat away at wet season profits.
Local sources that spoke with IMNA, consequently, confidently asserted that the paddy projects are part of NUP preparations for the coming election, scheduled for 2010.
According to one explanation, the paddy project is an auspice under which the NUP can build local connections and a network it can call upon come election time. They will become familiar with the people and the issues they face, said a source from Mudon close to the township chairman.
“They’re cultivating the summer paddy for show,” said another source, who is close to a Village Peace and Development Council in the area. “They’re growing the summer paddy so the farmers don’t need to plant it.”
How much the NUP paddy is able to lessen the burden on farmers, and hence win their support, remains to be seen. The projects are currently limited to only 10 acres per village, while hundreds of acres of summer paddy are ordered to be cultivated in Mudon each year.
Local sources that spoke with IMNA also expressed skepticism at whether the NUP would be able to sow and reap a paddy harvest in the bone-dry, scorching-hot summer season. “They (NUP) don't have the skills and experience to grow summer paddy,” said the source in the VPDC. “But they can build support with the villagers if they do grow it.”
According to a highly ranked source in the New Mon State Party, most members are retired servicemen from the Burmese army. The party was formed out of the Burma Socialist Programme Party, the name for the party that came out of the 1962 coup that installed Burma’s military junta. In the 1990 election, which was later annulled, the party won 12 seats.
Whatever the NUP lacks in agricultural ability it at least makes up for in timing; according to Dr. Min Kyi Win, who won a seat in Mudon for the Mon National Democratic Front during the 1990 election, the only other party making election preparations in Mudon is General Ohm Myint from the Ministry of Mining.
