UEC ‘should postpone the election’ for fair vote: Thet Thet Khine

Pyithu Hluttaw lawmaker Daw Thet Thet Khine resigned from the ruling National League for Democracy in October last year and formed the People’s Pioneer Party, which will be contesting this year’s general election.   From a prominent gem and gold trading family, Thet Thet Khine was elected as the NLD’s representative in Yangon’s Dagon Township in 2015. However, she later quit the party after its central executive committee suspended her membership of the Dagon chapter’s executive committee in August 2018 for criticising the government.  Frontier’s Ye Mon sat down with Thet Thet Khine on June 25 for a wide-ranging interview about the PPP and the election.  

What preparations is the PPP making for the election?  Although our party is young, it is attracting well-educated people with experience. I only choose such people to be members.  A carefully-drafted constitution is the foundation of our party, which will be programmatic with a definite policy and work plan. Township offices are important basic organisations for a political party and we have opened 67 so far and another 90 will be opened soon. More than 110 offices will have been opened before the election.  We are also forming township executive committees, which are inviting applications from candidates. We have so far received about 200 applications for constituencies throughout the country. We will not be able to compete in all of the 110 townships where we have opened offices, but we expect to field candidates in more than 80 townships.

 

Which constituency will you contest?   

I have not decided, but I will compete for a seat in the Pyithu Hluttaw.  Leaders of the NLD are advising voters to vote for a party that can form government. Why should voters support small parties?  We do not regard our party as being small. Our party is eight months old, but it has offices in more than one third of the country’s 330 townships and will contest a quarter of the constituencies. You cannot consider only the age of the party. The knowledge, wisdom and experience of party members are more important than the party’s age.  I don’t accept the advice that voters should vote for a party that can form government. If the people vote only for the party that can form government, the Hluttaw will be dominated by one party and it will be no different from totalitarianism.  The advice that people should vote for the party that can form government is not compatible with democracy. The essence of democracy is a multi-party system and the existence of an opposition. If an incumbent party becomes too dominant, an opposition party can function as a check and balance.