CHIANG MAI- January 24. Two Shan political parties will officially meet to discuss a possible merger at the end of January, in Naypyitaw.

The merger discussions were initiated by the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD, the party that won the second highest number of seats in the 1990 election), known as “Tiger Head.” It sent letters twice in December last year to the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP), known as “White Tiger.”

SNDP sent a response letter to SNLD on January 23, 2014, suggesting s time and location to meet.

When SHAN contacted Sai Saw Aung, head of SNLD’s merger committee, he said: “We have got the response letter; we are discussing the issue now.”

At SNDP’s annual meeting on January 8-9, 2014, the party members decided not to dissolve White Tiger party. At the meeting, Sai Aik Pao, chairman of SNDP, asked the members: “Whoever agrees not to dissolve the party, stand up.” All of the over 1,000 people attending reportedly stood up.

In response to this, SNLD spokesman Sai Leik, said: “If one has to choose between personal matters and a political party, the party must come first; if between a political party and national affairs, national affairs must come first; hence, if it will be beneficial for the national cause, we can dissolve our party.”

“Whether we can merge or not, we have to wait and see at the meeting. We have different standpoints on certain issues: while SNLD is calling for 8 states, we accept 14 states.

However, we hold the principle that the wellbeing of the people must come first, and also we want to attain self-determination,” said SNDP MP, Sai Hsawng Hsi.

Both parties have set up merger committees, each comprising 5 members. The SNLD committee is headed by Sai Saw Aung and the SNDP committee is headed by Sai Hsawng Hsi.

Sai Hsawng Hsi has raised the concern that the existing parties will need to be abolished if they are to merge. The Election Commission regulates that existing parties must be abolished before registering to set up a new party.

Surveys conducted in 2012 show that 90 percent of people were calling for the two Shan political parties to merge, as well as for the two SSAs (Shan State Army-South and Shan State Army-North).

A fan page of SNDP’s facebook group said: “It is good news; we hope to see a fruitful discussion and good result.”