A three-persons team established by the National League for Democracy (NLD) that met with three Kachin parties who won seats in the recent national election said it went well.

 

Dr Aung Moe Nyo, who's leading the NLD's central executive committee secretariat team, told NMG they discussed equality, self-administration, building a federal union and appointing ethnic representatives into leading positions of the government once a new administration forms this March.

 

"We all felt free to discuss whatever we wanted,” said Dr Aung Moe Nyo. The ethnic parties stressed the importance of appointing ethnic leaders to ensure sufficient “checks and balances” between State and Union Parliament during the meeting in Myitkyina on New Year's Day, he said.

 

Dr Manam Tu Ja, chair of Kachin State People's Party (KSPP), said it would be “beneficial” for everyone if they formed a “national unity government”. He told the NLD secretariat team to implement the “Panglong promise”, signed into law by Gen Aung San, father of the NLD's leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, during the Panglong Agreement in 1947.

 

It's crucial that a single party not have complete control over the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the government, Dr Manam Tu Ja said, stressing the importance of having multiple parties power sharing these departments.

 

“The chief minister and parliament speaker for Kachin State must be from different political parties." The formation of a “national unity government'', which is a new policy for the NLD, is a step towards restoring peace in the country, the KSPP chair said, and the new government must implement it systematically with the full cooperation of the ethnic parties.

 

The Panglong Agreement granted ethnic nationalities democracy, equality and ethnic rights, Dr Manam Tu Ja said, and it's what the ethnic parties told the NLD they wanted during the meeting.

 

The other parties that joined the meeting in Kachin State were the Lisu National Development Party and New Democracy Party- Kachin.