All together 21 Arakanese civil society groups have decided to honour U Aye Tha Aung (president of ALD) and Dr Aye Maung (president of RNDP) for their successful initiatives to merge both the Arakan based political party into a single entity, said U Aung Thein Tun, vice-president of Rakhita Foundation, the leading organization of the award ceremony.

Nearly 60 delegates from the Arakanese civil society groups agreed to award the prize to them in a meeting held at Arakan State Dharma Hall inside the mighty Shwe Dagon pagoda campus in Yangon on 6 July.

“We all admire both the leaders because of their selfless efforts for the benefit of Arakanese people as a whole. The Arakanese people today need an united move and hence they wholeheartedly supported the move to merge both the influential Arakanese political party (ALD and RNDP) into Arakan National Party. Both U Aye Tha Aung and Dr Aye Maung played a very significant role in this endeavour,” added U Aung Thein Tun.

Mentionable is that both ALD and RNDP are major parties of Arakan in particular and Burma (Myanmar) in general. Both the parties won many parliamentary seats in 1990 and 2010 general elections of Burma.

Recently the leaders of both the parties had agreed to dissolve their respective identities to come out as a single entity for the cause of Arakanese people.

“All Arakanese cheered the leaders of two parties for the decision. So we have decided to organize a ceremony on 14 July, which is our (Rakhita Foundation) annual foundation day, in Yangon to award U Aye Tha Aung and Dr Aye Maung,” informed U Aung Thein Tun.