Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Other Political Parties & Opposition Groups
After the NLD, the next largest opposition party in parliament is the Shan Nationalities
Democratic Party with 22 seats across both houses. This ethnic minority party is stronger
at the local level, with 31 seats out of 143 in the Shan State parliament. The same pattern
is repeated with the respective ethnic parties in Chin, Kayin and Rakhine state parlia-
ments.
Mostly representing reactionary, old-guard interests, the National Unity Party, with 17
seats in parliament's combined houses, is next in line, followed by the Rakhaing Nation-
alities Development Party (RNDP) with 14 seats, and the NDF who, following resigna-
tions, have dropped to eight elected members.
Other parties with single-figure representation in the national parliament include the
All Mon Region Democracy Party (AMRDP), Chin National Party and Chin Progress
Party (CPP), the Pa-O National Organisation and the Wa Democratic Party.
In addition to the main parties, there are numerous other ethnic parties who either
didn't win seats, chose not to contest the 2010 election, or are unregistered opposition
groups. All of this is an indication of how complicated and potentially divisive ethnic
politics is in Myanmar.
The Transnational Institute (
www.tni.org
) has many scholarly articles and reports about
the political situation and ethnic conflict in Myanmar.
What's Changed?
The Economy
Myanmar's economy remains profoundly dysfunctional and under-performing. The
country is rich in natural resources - including gas, oil, teak, and precious metals and
gems - yet its people are the poorest in Southeast Asia, most struggling to get by on an
income of less than $2 a day.
Myanmar continues to be the only country in Southeast Asia to spend more on the mil-
itary than health and education combined - according to a Unicef report in 2012-13
about 29% of the country's $7.13 billion budget went to the defense forces, compared to
5.7% for health care, 11% for education and 0.3% for social welfare. The military's fa-
vourite method of financing such budgets was to print money, says Sean Turnell, an ex-
pert on Myanmar's economy at Sydney's Macquarie University, hence the galloping in-
flation of the past.
