One cannot accuse U Aung Min, who is representing President Thein Sein in most of the negotiations with the armed resistance movements of course, for ‘praising the merits of one’s own sour fish’, as the famous Burmese saying goes, but it was interesting to listen to how he put it when he said no one else appeared to him to be able to fit into the role of the president like “my boss”.
He was speaking to Lt-Gen Yawdserk, leader of the Restoration Council of Shan State / Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA) yesterday morning during the informal meeting at Serene Hotel on the Thai side of the fabulous Golden Triangle.
When he was a kid, according to him, he used to visit a movie studio run by one of his relatives to study the actors and actresses and spend time trying to cast them in each of the different roles in his mind. “I invariably found myself disagreeing with the company that chose them,” he said. “I applied the same method when it came to the question ‘Who should be our president’?: The person and the problems he or she is going to face as a president. And to be frank, I don’t see anyone else fitting into the president’s seat other than my boss.
“With all the problems he’s handling each day, not just the peace process, but from all fronts, it is amazing to see how he can stay so cool, calm and collected.”
U Aung Min was however careful to add later that he had nothing against the current two main contenders, democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and House Speaker Thura Shwe Mann.
He also declined to say whether “my boss” had decided to run for the next tenure.
Veteran journalist Larry Jagan reported earlier in Bangkok Post, 27 March, that U Thein Sein had announced his decision to run and that he had been winning powerful backing from the business circle, the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the Tatmadaw (armed forces) itself since.
U Aung Min was accompanied by U Khin Maung Soe, Minister for Electric Power. The two held a two-hour long informal meeting with Yawdserk yesterday discussing relations between the two sides, the yet to be realized development programs and the ongoing peace process.
“Right now I’m just waiting to sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) when it’s ready,” said Gen Yawdserk to U Aung Min at the dinner party held on 18 June. “You might say I’m not doing any peacemaking right now but only peacewaiting.”
His remark drew laughter from everyone at the table.
Yawdserk and his party left for the border after lunch. U Aung Min remained at the hotel reportedly to receive another delegation headed by Maj Gen Gun Maw, Kachin Independence Organization / Kachin Independence Army (KIO/KIA) in the afternoon.
