Yangon: The emergence of a United Party of Nationalities Brotherhood including Chin, Arakanese, Mon, Karen and Shan will still take time, said U U Hla Saw, general secretary of RNDP to Narinjara.
‘It exists in principle. We thought about competing in the coming 2015 election, by merging ethnic parties from 7 ethnic states into one big political party and balancing the power with big parties such as NLD and USDP. This is the principle. The purpose is to help build a real federated state to safeguard ethnic interests. But the party won’t appear soon, it will take time,’ he said.
Regarding the spreading news that a party including Shan, Chin, Arakanese, Mon and Karen will appear within 6 months, he said that ‘As I said before, it is a raw idea still. Now in Myanmar, there are big parties such as the USDP and the NLD. Now the NLD has entered the parliament circle. So, as per the agreement that exists among us before, the ethnic nationalities are considering constituting an organization to gather strength among us. We have an initial agreement among 6 ethnic parties implemented in the form of ‘Nationalities Brotherhood’. We are still taking time to consider the possibilities for a future merger.’
But, it is more probable that these different ethnic parties are going to merge as an alliance rather than a party, he commented further.
‘This is more like a move to combine as allies. It is not likely that the parties will merge into one big party and compete in the up-coming election. It is more possible that we are going to stand as an alliance by merging of 6 or 7 ethnic parties. We now have a stand with the name ‘Nationalities Brotherhood’. We are going to strengthen and consolidate the existing form.
He also elaborated on the possible benefits of the merger of the ethnic parties.
‘The main reason we are working under the name of ‘NBH’ is to help build the federal state. By one party alone struggling we won’t realize a real federal state. It is important that we work together strategically to reach our goal. We have a number of leaders who share the same vision. We will reach our goal when we work together.’ U U Hla Saw concluded.