Yawdserk, 51, leader of the Shan State Army (SSA) South and host to the gathering of 49 delegates and 112 supporters and observers, skillfully steered the meeting that was divided between two sides to reach a middle ground agreement:
By naming the gathering by majority vote Shan State Congress, he quieted his own members who were pushing for it
By guaranteeing that the name would be provisional until a constitution is drafted and approved by all parties some time in the coming year, he also alleviated the fears of the non-Shan group’s delegates that the SSA South would hasten the process without their consent
The meeting also agreed to set up a 7-person committee
To draft the constitution (“It doesn’t need to be long,” said Sao Ood Kehsi, Chief of RCSS’s Alliance Affairs Department. “The pre-independence constitution of the United States was only 5 pages.”)
To bring around other groups in Shan State and
To convene the next meeting
The committee, its members to be named later, would be headed by the following groups:
Lahu Democratic Union (LDU) 1 member
PaO National Liberation Organization(PNLO) 1 member
Restoration Council of Shan State (SSA’s political arm) 3 members
Tai Coordination Committee(TCC) 1 member
Wa National Organization(WNO) 1 member
“We should work together on common issues,” said Yawdserk in his invitation, “and work separately on different ones. We should also meet at least once a year to discuss issues affecting us.”
The groups were represented by the following persons:
LDU Kya Bo Long, Kya Gu
PNLO Hkun Thurein, Hkun Hsoi Hto
TCC Perng Fa, Hseng Noung
WNO Ta Ai Nyunt
Other groups the Shan State Congress (SSC) has proposed to win over includes Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), Shan State Army (SSA) North, United Wa State Party (UWSP) and PaO National Organization (PNO), among others.
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