Shwe Mann contests USDP expulsions

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Shwe Mann contests USDP expulsions

YANGON: -- U Shwe Mann, who is among 17 prominent members expelled from the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, has challenged the former ruling party to justify the expulsions, Myanmar Times reported.

The USDP was behaving like a “dictatorship”, said U Saw Hla Tun, one of the former Speaker’s allies who was also expelled.

The party should explain its motives, Shwe Mann said in a statement, insisting he would continue his work “for the sake of country and people” as chair of parliament’s influential Legal Affairs and Special Cases Assessment Commission, to which he was appointed by Aung San Suu Kyi two months ago.

The former Speaker, who was ousted as party chair by then-president U Thein Sein in an internal power struggle last August, confirmed on Facebook that he had received a letter from the USDP on April 22 notifying him and 16 others of their dismissal from party ranks.

The expulsions, believed to have been ordered by former president Thein Sein, confirmed the deep rifts within the USDP which suffered a crushing defeat by the National League for Democracy in last November’s election.

For some analysts, the disintegration of the USDP reflects the success of Aung San Suu Kyi in turning her touted policy of “national reconciliation” into a tactical tool to weaken her already diminished opponents. Two of the dismissed USDP members are government ministers appointed by the NLD leader in recognition of her close ties with U Shwe Mann.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/161194


-- Thai PBS 2016-04-27