NDF Leaders Visit Shin Wirathu To Pay Their Respects

(News article and photos direct from Shin Wirathu’s Blog on January 10, 2014.)

NDF Leaders paying respects to Shin Wirathu.

At about 10:30 in the morning of January-10 the NDF (National Democratic Force) Party’s leadership led by their Chairman Khin Maung Swe visited Shin Wirathu at his Dannah-thahara School of New Masoeyein Teaching Monastery to pay their respects.

The NDF delegation included the popular woman MP Khin Wine Kyi who regularly visits Shin Wirathu for his religious and political guidance.

In return our Shin Wirathu delivered to the NDF leaders a Dammah sermon explaining the Magah Dewa teachings of four essential characteristics for defeating an enemy. He described the four essential characteristics as Loyality (Thitsar), Justice (Dammah), Perseverance (Wiriya), and Truth (Sarga).

Afterwards the NDF leadership also went to pay their respects to the Maharnaryaka Sayadaw of New-Masoeyein Teaching Monsatery Shin Bartdanta Thaylar Biwuntha who in return had told them to respect the land and also to understand the value of land when they as the politicians are out organizing the farmers and workers.

NDF: The National Democratic Force on the side of Buddhist People

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.

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, has a total of 12 seats in the legislature's two chambers.

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.

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 nationalist anti-Muslim stance the NDF is aiming to grab a substantial number of parliamentary seats from both ruling USDP led by President Thein Sein and opposition NLD led by ASSK in 2015 General Elections.

NDF Leaders with Shin Wirathu in Mandalay's New-Masoeyein Teaching Monastery.