Five senior members of the People Democracy Party (PDP) were arrested last month after the party publicly accused Kachin State Chief Minister Lajawn Ngan Seng (La John Ngan Hsai) of corruption. The arrested party leaders of the small opposition group were reportedly charged with incitement and defamation after printing party literature accusing Ngan Hsai and his deputies of soliciting bribes from motorbike salesmen and organizers of the annual Manau festival in the Myitkyina area.
In in an article published last Friday by the Irrawaddy magazine PDP Secretary Aung Myint revealed that the party wrote to NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi requesting assistance in freeing detained party members. PDP Chairman Dr. Than Htike Oo, Vice-Chairman Hein Htet Aung, Executive Committee member Win Naing and two other party members were detained on Oct. 24 according to Aung Myint. Nan Kham Htwe was subsequently released due to health reasons.
The arrests of the chief minister's political opponents come amidst rising tensions in Kachin State, where fighting is occurring daily between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Burma's military.
Ngan Hsai, Kachin businessman with close connections to Burma's military, is very unpopular in the state. Ngan Hsai is the most senior Kachin representative for the military backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). Many Kachin see him as a puppet of the previous military's regimes Minister for Communications and Posts and Telegraphs Brigadier-General Thein Zaw. Ngan Hsai who is Buddhist unlike most Kachin who are predominately Christian was relatively unknown before running in the 2010 national elections. He has no discernible base of support amongst the Kachin population.
During the 2010 elections, the PDP ran candidates in several districts in northern Burma but failed to win any seats. The election was widely criticized for being run in a non-transparent manner, favoring the military backed USDP.
