Sawbwa (king) Sao Sein Lin who signed the landmark Panglong Agreement as a witness on behalf of the Shan people in 1947 has declared “I would like to call on State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to choose the upright and unbiased Shan person as a new chief minister of Shan State.”
There is increasing pressure on the State Counsellor and the NLD government to demonstrate goodwill towards ethnic states by appointing chief ministers who are truly representative and not selected from the ranks of the NLD‘s ethnic bamar.
Sao Sein Lin, the veteran survivor of the 1947 Panglong Agreement, is the youngest among the Sawbwars who signed the Panglong Conference and the only one still alive in Shan State. He governed it as Sakoi Saopha (Sawbwa) in 1946.
The former Shan leader suggested “The election of the genuine ethnic Shan person is the best choice as the chief minister. The chief minister should not only be loyal to the National League for Democracy (NLD), but primarily loyal to the Union government.”
He added “achieving the peace is the most important thing for Shan State. The Union will only see peace and tranquility when the Shan State sees development”.
He donated Ks five million to State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for the union peace process in 2017.