Nang Kham Aye, Shan State Assembly member for Namtu township and CEC member of the State’s second largest winning Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP), says the party’s MPs will be meeting soon to discuss more active party role.

“The MPs, though elected by the people in their constituencies, have no role in the party,” she explains. “As for myself, I enjoy some privileges because I’m a CEC member, and not because of being an MP.”

 The SNDP is run by a 25 member Central Executive Committee (CEC).

There has also been complaints about the immense power the widely popular chairman Sai Ai Pao seems to be wielding. “We had in January set up a 5 men committee to liaise with the Tiger Head (logo for the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy),” said another MP. “But it was dissolved by the chairman without consulting the members.”

The SNDP MPs will be meeting before the latest session of the Shan State Assembly opens on Monday, 9 September.

The SNLD was the largest winning party in Shan State with 23 seats in 1990.
The SNDP (known as the White Tiger Party) was set up after the SNLD refused to enter the 2010 elections, citing their leaders including Chairman Hkun Htun Oo and General Secretary Sai Nyunt Lwin were still imprisoned. (They were released in January 2012.) It won 57 seats nationwide including 31 seats statewide.

The two parties’ feud centers around two main policy differences:

• The SNDP is for the amendment of the 2008 constitution, while the SNLD calls for a new rewrite
• The SNDP is for 14 states while the SNLD reiterates the 1960 call for an 8 state configuration