Wider World by CS

NLD leader powers through nationwide campaign schedule

By Nyan Lynn Aung   |   Tuesday, 22 September 2015

Criss-crossing the country, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is clocking up the miles as the only party leader with nationwide status drawing the crowds ahead of the November elections.
Supporters gather to watch Daw Aung San Suu Kyi speak in her constituency, Kawhmu, yesterday. Photo: Aung Khant / The Myanmar Times
Yesterday the 70-year-old National League for Democracy leader made her first visit to her own constituency of Kawhmu, a township of some 100,000 residents across the river from Yangon.
A day earlier she had been in central Myanmar in Nay Pyi Taw, challenging the ex-military candidates of the ruling United Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). Later this week her tiring schedule brings two days back north in Sagaing Region.
Flag-waving crowds were organised in advance by party activists as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi spoke yesterday in the delta village of Maet Zal Sate. She expressed concern that voters had been intimidated.

‘’I heard that the villagers, especially civil servants, were threatened. However, do not be afraid of anything, and I want to say please vote for the NLD so that threats will not happen again,” she said.
U Tin Htut, a 50-year-old villager, alleged that Maet Zal Sate’s administrative head – whose post is under the military-controlled General Administration Department – had put pressure on locals to vote for the USDP. But, he added, most villagers were unwilling to do so.
‘’I must vote NLD whatever they [USDP] do in their electioneering,’’ U Tin Htut told The Myanmar Times.

The town of Kawhmu and surrounding villages are only an hour away from Yangon by ferry and car, but the infrastructure is like that of another world. Even though roads have improved in recent years, residents said there is no hospital or clinic and people struggle to earn a living.
Ko Myo Zin from Maw Taw village seemed sceptical however about promises of development. Changes have not happened yet and he doubts they will ever come, he said, adding that is unlikely he will “interrupt” his life to go and vote.
But others pointed out that in the past two years concrete roads had assured access to villages that had been extremely difficult to reach in the rainy season. Such progress they attributed to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who won her parliamentary seat in Kawhmu in the 2012 by-election.

“I believe surely that our villages will become more developed after she will be re-elected to parliament,” said 40-year-old Ko Aye Moe from Sone Shan village.
He said he had voted for the USDP in the 2010 elections – which were boycotted by the NLD – because the candidate had promised development. “But the promise disappeared into air,’’ he said, adding that he would like better education facilities locally.
“I wish that Daw Suu was going to be president because she made many changes for our villages even though she does not have full powers. I believe she could create many changes for us when she has full power in government,’’ said Daw Pearl from Kyeik Htwal village.

Understanding the politics of patronage, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has made a point at her rallies to stress that the NLD could not implement development efficiently because the party is not in control of the government.
Kawhmu is the safest of seats for the NLD, but on September 20 Daw Aung San Suu Kyi took her campaign into one of the townships of the Union Territory of Nay Pyi Taw, fertile ground for the USDP with its high concentration of civil servants and soldiers.
She chose Zeyarthiri in the heart of the capital where in July more than 1700 residents, many with links to the military, launched a petition in a bid to oust their local MP, Speaker Thura U Shwe Mann, for allegedly showing “disrespect” to the military in parliament. As Speaker of parliament and USDP chair, the ex-general who made no secret of his own presidential ambitions was also seen as a potential ally of the NLD leader.
Thura U Shwe Mann decided not to run for re-election in Zeyathriri, making a last-minute change instead for his hometown of Pyu in Bago Region. He was ousted as USDP chair last month.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s message in Zeyarthiri was that governments only hold power temporarily because power lies in the hands of the people. At a speech in Nan Aw village she said the people carried a great responsibility and should not rely completely on any government, even if the NLD came to power.
She promised that if the people were not satisfied with a government led by the NLD then they would have the right to vote again five years later.
It was time to change, she said, suggesting that the current government was only committed to reforms in words.

Knowing what her rivals lack in charisma they make up in resources, she said, “Every vote is priceless. So don’t sell them to another … You can take everything they give, but don’t give them your vote. Selling your vote means you sell your future.”