When Maw Htun Aung, a 37-year-old Kachin man, was in high school, the military regime enacted a gemstone law that brought hardship upon the region’s small-scale jade miners, including his father.
Like many others, his father went bankrupt after being forced out of his mining plot to make way for military-linked companies to exploit the area.
That experience is why he ended up trying to improve the mining sector as country manager for the Natural Resource and Governance Institute, an international NGO working to improve conditions in the extractives industries.
Now, he hopes he can make a bigger impact by moving into politics, and is running for an Upper House seat in Muse, northern Shan state, in November.
Five years ago, a candidate of Maw Htun Aung’s credentials might have sought a home in the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which spent decades resisting the military junta.
But as the NLD reaches the end of its first term in government, a number of candidates with activist and NGO backgrounds say they feel the party is no longer the vehicle for change it once was.
Instead of running for the NLD, Maw Htun Aung has chosen the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD). It is a much smaller party, and he knows that he would have a better shot of winning a seat on an NLD ticket. But, he says, that’s not an option.
“If I contested for the NLD, I know there would be a lot of restrictions for me if I talk about the rights of ethnic people,” he said, “So, it is not possible for me to join the NLD.”
Mya Nandar Thin, founder of the New Myanmar Foundation, an election observation group, said she has noticed more candidates with activism and NGO backgrounds competing for seats this year. Her group is conducting a survey to find out exactly how many, she added, but the figure “is significant”.
Those who spoke to Myanmar Now said a key reason they’re running is dissatisfaction with the NLD.
‘The NLD should be braver’
Thant Zin Htet, 30, is running independently for a Lower House seat in Nattalin township, Bago. He has been involved with the NLD since the Saffron Revolution in 2007, when he was a teenager. In 2008, he was briefly jailed for protesting against a rigged referendum to approve the military’s constitution.
He was jailed again in 2012 and 2014, for six months each time, for protesting for farmers’ rights.
Now, he feels the party no longer represents his political beliefs, and that they have done little to protect the rights of farmers and strengthen land rights.
“I also think the NLD is no longer decisive when it deals with the military. It should conduct itself more bravely when it engages with the Tatmadaw,” he said.
Lin Lin Tun, 37, chose to run after growing frustrated at the fact that only 10% of Myanmar’s MPs are women despite the fact the ruling party has a female leader.
She will contest a Lower House seat in Matupi, southern Chin state, for the Chin National League for Democracy (CNLD) in the hopes of improving the lives of women there.
“The way I’m getting into this election, it’s like I’m hitting it with my head, with the goal that the next young woman will also be able to come in,” she said.
Seng Nu Pan, 26, is running in Myitkyina for the Kachin State People’s Party (KSPP) after years of youth activism that have left her in little doubt about the need for Kachin people to form a meaningful opposition to the NLD.
She was among those who led anti-war protests when around 2,000 people were trapped in the jungle by clashes between the Kachin Independence Army and the Tatmadaw in 2018.
And like Maw Htun Aung she feels the NLD has failed to address the ills of the jade mining industry. Despite the fact Kachin jade makes a large financial contribution to the country, she said, “the government has made no effort to develop our state.”
But her ambitions are bigger than reforming the mining industry. “My ultimate goal is to build our country to be a Federal Democracy which has self-determination, self-administration and equality,” she said.
Intense competition
When the NLD came to power, Khu Tu Reh, a Karenni activist working with indigenous farmers, noticed how few voices there were in parliament and government representing indigenous communities.
“That’s why I decided I would have to do parliamentary politics myself,” he said. He is fighting to represent Hpruso township in the Upper House for the Kayah State Democratic Party.
Nay Yan Oo, who also has an NGO background at organisations including Myanmar Egress, voted for the NLD in 2015 and encouraged all of his friends and family to do the same. But since the party’s landslide victory he has grown frustrated at the fact there are no checks and balances on its power.
His Yangon apartment has become a makeshift campaign office for his bid to win a seat for the People’s Party, which was founded by veteran activist Ko Ko Gyi.
“The conventional wisdom is that the NLD will win the most seats again in 2020. Especially in places like Yangon,” he told Myanmar Now as two young men working on his social media campaign tapped away at computers.
“My team is tiny and also the campaign budget is low,” he said, but he thinks his more tech-savvy campaign will give him an edge in November. “I just want to say: wait and see.”
Nay Phone Latt, a regional NLD MP for Thingangyun township, Yangon, and an anti-hate speech activist, is sticking with the party he has served for five years. But he is happy to see candidates with NGO and activist backgrounds bringing more competition to this year’s poll.
“I welcome them,” he said. “Their experience and knowledge in their community-based work would be really useful in parliamentary politics.”
Despite his confidence, Nay Yan Oo knows the path to a seat in parliament would be easier had he run for the NLD. He chose the People’s Party, he said, because “their politics are strong… and they have held their beliefs for almost three decades without swaying.”
“We have to awaken this sleeping parliament!” he added.
