The New Mon State Party (NMSP) will not participate in Burma's 2010 elections. The decision comes after the group held a two-week long Party Congress at NMSP Central Headquarters in Ye Township, Mon State. The Congress concluded on January 17th.
The refusal to participate in the election is based upon opposition to Burma's constitution, NMSP party spokesman Nai Ong Mange told IMNA on Monday. "If the SPDC does not change their constitution, it is difficult for the NMSP to accept. Because the constitution is not suitable for Mon people and their lives," he said. "We are not fully against the election – if they fix the constitution. If the government changes some parts of the constitution, the NMSP will consider whether to participate. If they do not change the constitution, the party will not join."
An official supporting vote of over 90% approved Burma's constitution in May 2008 referendum. The referendum process – and the constitution itself – have been internationally condemned as wildly undemocratic. "The Problem with the constitution is that it doesn't let people organize or talk freely. If Burma becomes a democracy, its people still will not be able to organize or talk freely," said Nai Ong Mange. A day earlier, NMSP General Secretary Nai Hongsa also told the BBC that the document's built in obstacles to amendment made it unacceptable.
Nai Ong Mange also said that the party had learned its lesson from the 1958 surrender and disarmament of the Mon National Front so that the group could participate in parliamentary elections. A number of the groups' leaders were arrested within the next five years, he said. A subsequent military coup make the elections irrelevant and laid the groundwork for today's State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military government.
The party's decision to functionally forgo participating in the election raises questions about the durability of the group's ceasefire with the SPDC. The two sides agreed to halt armed conflict in 1995, though no negotiations have subsequently taken place. The NMSP is the largest political party representing Mon people, and continues to administer a small amount of territory along the Thai-Burma border.
The chief question will deal with the NMSP's military wing, the Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA), which retains 6 battalions under arms. In early October, Major General Thet Naing Win promised the group that it would not be pressured to disarm. But the armed wings of ethnic political parties elsewhere, including the much larger United Wa State Army and the Kachin Independence Organization, have reported increasing pressure to "exchange arms for peace" and field political candidates without armed backing.
Nai Ong Mange was clear that the NMSP has no plans to break the ceasefire, although he left unclear the future status of the MNLA. "Many people hear rumors about the ceasefire – will we break the ceasefire? And they worry. The reason we made the ceasefire was to develop Mon areas. To develop the country. And to bring peace to Mon people," said Nai Ong Mange. "But the ceasefire should be maintained on both sides."
"The party's intention is not to break the ceasefire," Nai Ong Mange continued. "If the SPDC puts pressure on the NMSP to put their arms under the SPDC, we will consider that issue among ourselves, and we will ask for opinions from monks, Mon organizations and also Mon people. Then the party will consider it again and make a decision."
Other NMSP officials were clearer about the future of the MNLA, however. On Sunday, Nai Hongsa told the BBC that the MNLA would not be brought under the auspices of the SPDC as a loosely allied "border police." And NMSP Central Executive Committee member Nai Shwe Thein, who spoke with IMNA, made little effort to be conciliatory when discussing the prospect of pressure for MNLA disarmament. "The day they say the MNLA should be under control of the SPDC, the next day or maybe the day after that, the ceasefire will be broken," he said, though he tempered his words: "If they do not order [the MNLA to disarm or come under SPDC control], the ceasefire will be maintained."
