Sunday Times 2
Myanmar opposition youth seek louder voice
View(s):YANGON, July 5 (AFP) -Aung San Suu Kyi’s Myanmar opposition party faced calls to inject new blood into its ageing top ranks as it opened a landmark conference today dedicated to its youth wing.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner’s National League for Democracy (NLD), founded after a bloody crackdown on a failed popular uprising in 1988, is preparing for key parliamentary elections next year that could sweep it to power.
Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi attends the first ever nationwide youth conference of the NLD on 5 July, (AFP)
Maung Maung Oo, one of the organisers of the meeting of about 150 opposition party members aged 16 to 35 – the first of its kind — said the aim was “to promote a new generation of leaders”.
“Not only our party, but the whole country faces a generation gap,” he told AFP.
Young activists were often at the vanguard of Myanmar’s decades-old resistance to military rule, which ended in 2011 with the creation of a nominally civilian government.
But they have struggled to penetrate a fledgling post-junta parliamentary system in a country that highly values respect for elders.
“I can guess that some youths might have in their mind that it’s their turn to take their places, wondering whether the elders will give up their positions,” Suu Kyi said in an opening address to the conference.
“You need to consider how these elders have struggled for a long time to ensure the survival of the NLD,” she added.
Younger members have urged the NLD to rejuvenate its senior ranks, traditionally dominated by activists in their 60s or older known as “the uncles”, but so far the party has refrained from a substantial revamp.
“The voice of the youth in the party is still weak,” said NLD member Yazar, 37.
“I’m not satisfied with the current structure which lacks a proper central executive committee,” he said.
“Everything depends on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. I don’t think it’s a good sign,” he said. Daw is a term of respect in Myanmar.