Myanmar: Farmers Launch Boycott of MPs Who ‘Didn’t Stand Up for Us’

Mar 5, 2015 | Myanmar Times
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A meeting of about 700 farmers at Mandalay’s Bayda Institute on February 28 released a seven-point statement demanding that the government stop “destroying farmers’ lives” and jailing those who resist or protest land-grabs.

“Farmers have lost their land. It’s totally impossible for us to vote for candidates who didn’t stand up for us,” U Aye, whose farmlands in Pyin Oo Lwin have been confiscated, told The Myanmar Times.

The farmers’ second point urged supporters to vote against MPs who failed to help resolve farmland issues. A third expressed objections to setting March 2, the anniversary of General Ne Win’s military coup in 1962, as Peasants’ Day. The remaining points of the statement concerned proposed amendments to the Land Utilisation Bill which, it said, could hurt the interests of farmers. The farmers also expressed support for the student-led protest against the National Education Law and called on the authorities to refrain from violently dispersing student marchers.