NDF Party’s MP Khin Waing Kyi Meeting Shin Wirathu

(News and photos direct from Shin Wirathu’s Face book Account on November19, 2013.)

NDF's MP Daw Khin Wine Kyi receiving guidance
from nationalist monk Shin Wirathu.

At noon on November 18 Daw Khin Waing Kyi the woman Upper-house MP from NDF (National Democratic Force) party had paid respects to nationalist Buddhist monk Shin Wirathu at his New-Masoeyein Teaching Monastery in Mandalay.

The popular woman MP had come to see Shin Wirathu to report about current political scenes in and out of Hluttaw (Burma’s Parliament) and also the current updates on the 969-Buddhist-Movement sponsored law the Buddhist Women’s Marriag Act (Ah-myo-zount U-pa-day) at the Parliament.

In return Shin Wirathu had instructed her to continue on with her and her NDF Party’s tireless efforts till the crucial Buddhist law will be submitted to the Parliament and debated and then passed. Shin Wirathu also donated one million kyats to her NDF Party as his support to strengthen NDF’s nationalist-patriotic activities in protecting Burman race and Buddhism and Burmese culture.

The National Democratic Force (Burmese: အမျိုးသား ဒီမိုကရေစီ အင်အားစု , abbreviated NDF) is a Burmese political party formed by former members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) who chose to contest the 2010 general election in Myanmar (Burma) while Aung San Suu Kyi-led NLD had boycotted that election.

USDP Flag.

The NDF was among the three political parties, together with the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the National Unity Party (NUP-Burma), to stand in the 2010 elections on a nationwide basis. NDF's adoption of the peasants’ bamboo hat, which is the traditional symbol of the NLD, created some controversy.

But a quarter of the parliamentary seats were kept aside for the military even before the vote, and the army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party claimed an overwhelming victory, giving it 388 of the national parliament's 493 elected seats.

The opposition National Democratic Force (NDF), which split from Suu Kyi's party in order to contest the vote, had gained a total of 12 seats in the legislature's two chambers after 2010 General Elections.

At present NDF is holding 2 out of 224 seats in Ahmyothar Hluttaw (Upper House) and 6 out of 440 seats in Pyithu Hluttaw (Lower House) as four NDF MPs has deserted and rejoined NLD after the 2010 General Elections.

NLD Flag.

NDF claimed to be a social liberal party that seeks to promote individual freedoms and a market economy with state regulation. The party supports civil and human rights and believes that ethnic political issues should be resolved alongside democracy and human rights issues. The party encourages the development of civil society organisations.

By re-aligning themselves along the line of Shin Wirathu’s and 969-movement’s populist Buddhist-nationalist anti-Muslim stance the NDF is obviously aiming to grab a substantial number of parliamentary seats from both ruling party USDP led by President Thein Sein and the main opposition party NLD led by ASSK in 2015 General Elections.

IMHO, NDF has a very good chance to become a leading player in Burmese politics as its main rivals ASSK's NLD is widely seen in Buddhist-Burmese eyes as a Socialist party too friendly to Muslims and foreign countries while ruling USDP still carries the baggage from old military dictatorships.
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NDF MP receiving a cash-donation from Shin Wirathu.

Former generals Thein Sein the President and Shwe Mann the Parliament Speaker.

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