12 : An army celebrates birth of party
Politics: 16th August 2006
The ceasefire group Shan State Army ‘North’ is marking the 35th anniversary of the founding of the defunct Shan State Progress Party (SSPP) today, reported sources from the north.
The event will be observed at 4 separate locations:
- Hseng Keow, General HQ, Hsipaw township
- Wan Hai, First Brigade HQ, Kehsi township
- Kali, Seventh Brigade HQ, Kunhing township
- Nine Bends, Muse township
The year’s slogans, according to an announcement in Shan received by S.H.A.N., will be: Solidarity of the SSA, Solidarity between the SSA and the people and Longevity of the SSA. Asked by S.H.A.N. whether the term ‘SSA’ included the anti-SPDC SSA-South, one top officer enigmatically replied, “SSA-North and SSA-South: These are only media appellations. The SSA does not hold with such discriminations.”
The official statement also claimed it was due to adherence to the guiding principles laid down by the SSPP that the SSA had withstood both the test of times and adversities.
The Shan State Progress Party was founded under the leadership of Sao Seng Suk, now Chairman of the Shan Democratic Union (SDU) and Chairman of the Shan State Constitution Drafting Commission (SSCDC), and the late Chao Tzang Yawnghwe (1939-2004), who died while serving as adviser to the SDU and the Ethnic Nationalities Council (ENC). Chao Tzang, in The Shan of Burma: Memories of a Shan Exile, noted: "It was necessary (to setup a political party) because we believed that the resistance movement should be controlled by, and responsive to, the will of the people, more so since the people did participate fully in the war. The formation of a party would bring the resistance and the army under their control which would consequently eliminate undesirable tendencies within the army such as warlordism."
