President U Thein Sein yesterday paid a visit to the Rakhine State capital where his Union Solidarity and Development Party is facing a tough challenge from the ethnic opposition Arakan National Party.
Several hundred people greeted him at the airport early in the morning before he switched from presidential jet to helicopter to fly to the ancient Buddhist temple city of Mrauk U, later returning to Sittwe.
The president, who is not a candidate in the November 8 parliamentary elections, is barred from the constitution from taking part in campaign activities but his official state visits up and down the country have clearly been used to drum up support for the ruling party, which he chairs.
More than 300 people, including many young men, students and villagers, stood on the airport tarmac holding USDP flags and decked out in the party’s green hats and campaign T-shirts, while the campaign song lyrics “Come, Come, Come” blared on loop from the USDP’s green float.
Schoolchildren in traditional Rakhine dress were marshalled by their teachers, while a troupe of some 30 women, also in traditional outfits, prepared to dance.
On nearby roads, teams of road workers hurried to pack down newly filled potholes along the route the presidential convoy would take later that day. His supporters were gifted with wall calendars bearing his picture on the front. Lunch, a T-shirt and a small sum to cover expenses were also said to have been provided.
The president’s five-year term ends in March 2016 but the ex-general has made clear in interviews his readiness to serve again if elected by the new parliament.
After greeting officials at the airport, U Thein Sein flew on by helicopter to Mrauk U, the ancient capital of the former Arakan kingdom, where he was scheduled to replace an umbrella atop the 16th century Shittaung Pagoda. Much of the city’s splendour was destroyed by invading Bamar forces in 1784.
U Thein Sein’s visit was seen as giving a boost to the election prospects of former Rakhine chief minister U Maung Maung Ohn, who is running in the key seat of Ann.
The presidential visit came a day after National League for Democracy patron U Tin Oo flew into Sittwe where he addressed a small but loyal crowd.
Both parties are under pressure from the Arakan National Party which hopes to win control of the state assembly and return lawmakers to the Union parliament. The USDP won well in Rakhine in 2010 but this year bowed to rising Arakan nationalist and Buddhist pressures in disenfranchising several hundred thousand Muslim Rohingya, officially called Bengalis, in the state.
Security forces provided blanket cover for the president in a city that saw intense sectarian violence in 2012, resulting in the removal of most Muslims to squalid camps or their confinement to a restricted quarter of the city.
Police lined the streets and the military patrolled the perimeters of the airport tarmac. In a tea shop following the president’s reception a man in a vest labelled “media” admitted he was not a journalist but a police officer, and that the vests had been handed out at the station.
The authorities were not taking any chances. Hundreds were waved down by a faulty metal detector before being allowed through on to the tarmac. A Myanmar Times reporter present at the welcoming ceremony was relegated to the car park, with several levels of authority citing “security” as the reason.
A protest was planned yesterday up the coast in Maungdaw where an internal UN security memo detailed information received about a rally against a Kaman Muslim candidate. The rally was expected to draw as many as 1000 protesters, and INGO personnel were advised to avoid the site.
U Thein Sein returned to Sittwe yesterday evening. His convoy of more than 20 vehicles wound its way through town to the recently renovated viewpoint at the confluence of the Kaladan River and the Bay of Bengal, and then on to the main pagoda.
Asked if he was happy to see the president visit, one young trishaw driver observing a morning rally at USDP headquarters said, “Yes. But I will vote for ANP.”
