U Sai Win Phay, a former jade merchant, is set on being the next minister for Shan ethnic affairs in Mandalay Region so he can better lobby for his small ethnic minority group, the “Red Shan” or Tai-Leng. But it’s a hotly contested seat, with heavy hitters from the two largest parties, and bigger ethnic parties, also jostling for the position.
U Sai Win Phay is running with the Tai-Leng National Development Party, a new party with a low profile that he hopes to raise through grassroots canvassing.
“I use door-to-door campaigning because our Shan people are spread out, not united,” he told The Myanmar Times. “Campaigning from house to house helps create a stronger network.”
The Red Shan speak their own dialect of the Shan language and almost exclusively practise Buddhism. Most live in southern Kachin State, and in northern Sagaing and northern Mandalay regions. The country’s second-largest city is also a hub, as it’s home to more than 50,000 Shan residents.
While other political parties have put forward Shan candidates for the ethnic minister seat, U Sai Win Phay is the only Red Shan candidate in the running.
“I will work for the social benefit of the elderly and disabled, as well as try to improve the educational, economic and health prospects for all the Shan people in Mandalay, through cooperation with the rest of Myanmar,” he said. “As Bogyoke Aung San said, equal rights to all ethnic people.”
Daw Khin May, a Red Shan trader in Mandalay, said she would vote for the TNDP because it is her ethnic party. She hopes U Sai Win Phay will help the Red Shan people earn recognition as an ethnic minority. Currently, their identification cards recognise them as “Myanmar”, or “Shan”, but there is no “Red Shan” category.
“If the people have awareness and will, the TNDP will win the Shan ethnic minister of affairs position,” she said.
But one Red Shan monk, who asked not to be named, said he believes the TNDP stands little chance to win the seat.
“Red Shan mostly live in Sagaing Region and Kachin State,” he said. “There are few Red Shan in Mandalay Region. They have only a small percentage [of the votes].”
The TNDP is running 54 candidates, mostly in Kachin State and Sagaing Region. U Sai Win Htay is the only TNDP candidate in Mandalay, though the party has three offices there.
Finances are tight for U Sai Win Htay’s small campaign, which is run out of a donated house south of the city. A year’s worth of rent at the house is the only campaign contribution from the party, he said, and he uses his own motorbike to travel to campaign stops in Mogok and Pyin Oo Lwin.
