Kayin People's Party Interview

This post contains an interview conducted by The Voice Weekly with U Saw Say Wa, General Secretary of the Kayin People’s Party. This extract was published in The Voice Weekly, August 23 – 29, 2010, p. 26.

Vocabulary:

ကောက်နုတ် ။ an extract
တိုင်းပြည် ။ country
ရေးရာ ။ affairs; matters relating to sth
အသုံးချ ။ to make use of
မဲဆန္နနယ် ။ constituency
မဲဆွယ် ။ to canvas/campaign for votes
စည်းရုံး ။ to organize; persuade
စုဆောင်းမှု ။ gathering, assembly
အကျွမ်းတဝင် ။ intimately
ရပ်တည်ချက် ။ position
ချဉ်းကပ် ။ to draw near
တောက်လျှောက် ။ for the entire length; always

Translation:

“It needs to be free and fair.”

An interview with Kayin People’s Party General Secretary U Saw Say Wa

Aung Soe, Kyaw Hsan Min

As the 2010 elections will be held on November 7th, which will be the first time [elections have been held] in 20 years, an extract of an interview with General Secretary U Saw Say Wa of the Kayin People’s Party that will enter in and contest the election is presented [below].

Voice: Firstly, I would like to know your aim in establishing a political party.

USSW: The party was established with the aim of representing Kayin nationals in order to legally express the needs of Kayin nationals and conduct the development of the country.

Voice: Since you are going to contest in order to represent the whole country, in what regions are you giving priority to contest?

USSW: We will set down as essential and contest in the five states and divisions of Ayawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon, Tenninthayi. We will make use of the right to get a representative of the Kayin affairs in those states and divisions. Kayin nationals must give their vote for a representative of the Kayin people.
We will also contest in Papun and Than Daung in Kayin State.

Voice: How is the situation of the party membership strength?

USSW: A party membership strength of 1,000 has already been submitted to the election commission. Because their remains at least the requirement of the photos that were not included and the CDs that were not included, this needs to be done again. We have a party membership strength of more than 12,000.

Voice: How many candidates will run in the election?

USSW: Now there are 30 candidates.

Voice: Will Uncle’s party which is newly assembled just now be able to contest [against] the two big parties which will run in most constituencies?

USSW: We will need to be able to campaign. And complete [the acquisition of] party funds.
If we are able to express so that the people will understand there is nothing that we will not be able to accomplish. [The election] needs to be free and fair.

Voice: Most political parties are having difficulty with funds and party [member] collection. How is the situation of the party membership of Uncle’s party?

USSW: There is not really much difficulty in the gathering of party membership. Since the people have not being intimate with politics [and] have had a superficial fear for many years, they have stayed away from politics. And regarding funds, because a misunderstanding has not yet emerged there is a weakness to donate. Business associations and companies are worried [to donate money].

Voice: Since Uncle’s party leaders are people who have retired from the armed forces, are the people able to have one kind of perspective of the party?

USSW: I believe that the people will be able to decide based on the party’s position, activity and goodwill.

Voice: How does Uncle view the current politics of Myanmar?

USSW: No one can say that the way someone [else] is going is right, [or] wrong. That is, the way has only just been opened to change from a military government to a people’s government. It will slowly draw closer [to a people’s government]. I believe that spaces will emerge. No country has permanent military rule any more. They [the military] themselves want to change.

Aung Soe, Kyaw Hsan Min