NLD Holds First Ever National Congress

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party kicked off its inaugural national congress Friday with an estimated 900 delegates in attendance, signifying just how far the group has come after being banned from politics in Burma only years earlier.

The conference, which is being held at the Royal Rose Hall in Rangoon’s Bahan township, will run from March 8-10 and marks a significant transition for the NLD which, due to the restrictions it endured during its 25 years of existence, had been forced to operate in much the same way as the regime it opposed.

Officials within the party had, up until this point, been largely hand-picked by Aung San Suu Kyi—the daughter of the architect of Burmese independence Gen. Aung San—and by members of the “old guard” that had been part of the organization’s founding core.

But Ohn Kyaine, a spokesperson for the NLD, told RFA’s Burmese Service on Friday that the party is now moving forward with internal elections that will help to cement some of the democratic principles that had been the basis for its establishment during a 1988 popular uprising that was violently put down by Burma’s then-ruling military junta.

“The conference began at 9:00 a.m. today when all representatives arrived from their respective states and divisions. During the conference, the party will elect 120 Central Committee members and 30 Reserve Committee members,” he said.

Ohn Kyaine said that one Central Committee member would be elected from each group of 10 delegates representing a state or division.

“We have about 900 representatives at the conference. So, 90 central committee members will be elected initially. But because we have planned to elect 120 Central Committee members, we will elect the remaining 30 tomorrow,” he said.

“The 900 representatives will submit a list of nominations for the remaining 30 Central Committee members and the conference will elect them through a vote.”

The 120 Central Committee members will then elect a core group of 15 executive committee members, the spokesman said.

New blood

The unprecedented elections may allow the NLD to infuse its higher ranks with some new blood to supplement the older generation of party officials, many of whom are in their 80s and 90s.

Aung San Suu Kyi, 67, is expected to handily retain her position as the top-ranking official in the party, which plans to contest national elections in 2015 against the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

The USDP is a quasi-civilian party largely comprised of former military officials which took power from the junta after winning the country’s last polls in 2010.

The NLD, with Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, was absent from that election after refusing to register and was subsequently banned by the junta, which released her after the polls.

The new government, under President Thein Sein, allowed the NLD to register ahead of 2012 parliamentary by-elections in which it won 43 of 44 contested seats.

Vice Chairman of the NLD Tin Oo, who is organizing the congress, said that despite the party’s success in the by-elections, changes are needed to make the organization more politically viable and to garner support from the public in the lead up to 2015.

"Our party must be renewed and reformed," Tin Oo said during his speech at the opening of the conference.

"We are going to advocate for democracy, so our party must be based on democratization."

Tin Oo’s sentiments were echoed by attendees, including a 46-year-old woman from northern Mandalay named Nan, who told the Associated Press that she was “very excited” to be taking part in the conference.

“We hope to see the NLD transform into a more democratic structure, in line with the changes taking place in the country,” she said.

Decentralization?

One way in which the NLD may need to change to become more nimble and to better embrace democratic principles is to decentralize policymaking, which is largely dictated by party icon Aung San Suu Kyi—a strategy some observers have said may weaken the opposition’s appeal to the public.

Recently, the Nobel laureate, who won a seat in parliament last year, has drawn criticism from the international community for not taking a strong enough stance against sectarian violence in Rakhine state and for allowing the NLD to accept donations from blacklisted businessmen seen to be connected to the former regime.

She has also been chided from within Burma for showing support for the military, which has provided many of Burma’s youth with some of the best academic and financial opportunities for decade, and which more importantly controls 25 percent of the seats in parliament.

An Aung San Suu Kyi presidency would require a constitutional amendment to a clause that restricts Burmese with family members who are foreign nationals from the presidency, a change that would require the support of at least 75 percent of parliament.

As of day one of the congress, it was unclear just how substantial democratic reforms would be for the NLD, and the party went as far as to refuse entry to the media.

In what may indicate internal tensions within the party, Agence France Presse reported that four NLD members were banned from attending the congress after they were accused of trying to influence voting ahead of the meeting.

"When this sort of thing happens at the grassroots, it could be bad for the leader and the party," one of the accused, former political prisoner Khin Maung Shein, told AFP, explaining that he had merely asked some NLD representatives in Rangoon whether they wanted to be nominated to the Central Committee.

Reported by Kyaw Thu for RFA’s Burmese Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.