18 April

The old year has ended and the new year has begun. We have all had many experiences in the year 1380 ME. In the new year, everyone must try to build a new outlook on life. We must get rid of bad habits from the previous year and adopt good habits to create a new life.

In the New Year, people must take lessons from the troubles, difficulties, strengths, weaknesses, and challenges observed in the past year.

In the old year, we witnessed achievements in tackling several obstacles to the democratic transition, thanks to the collective efforts of the government and the people.

Fighting deep-rooted malpractices such as corruption and combating drug-trafficking have been significant steps taken during the previous year.

Without the participation of the people, we could not have seen any progress in fighting dogmatic habits and beliefs, deeply rooted for over half a century.

The quantum of agricultural loans has been increased and works for solving nationwide land ownership issues have picked up momentum, after restrictions were relaxed so as to avoid delays in solving the issues.

In the midst of these achievements, we are facing a different set of difficulties in the transition towards a democracy, building a democratic federal Union, the national economy, the Rakhine State issue and geopolitical matters, in addition to the peace process.

The recent armed conflicts in Rakhine State have made the situation more complex there. While seeking a sustainable solution to the issue, we are helping the people displaced by armed conflicts to get over the pain of uncertainty over their livelihoods due to the conflicts.

The challenges can be considered as an opportunity for building the collective strength of the people.

No matter the challenges and obstacles ahead of us, we are confident that we can achieve success in building a democratic federal Union through the collective strength of the ethnic brethren born in the Union with friendship, mutual support, mutual assistance, mutual respect, and mutual understanding, based on the Union Spirit.

At the same time, the people of the country must remain alert and not fall into the trap of conflict, and have a far-sighted vision on the transition to democracy.

At the same time, we need to work with the united strength of the people and all branches of the democracy, professionals, and civil society organizations in marching towards our goal of a democratic federal Union.

May the democratic federal Union be established with the ‘collective strength’ of the ethnic people in the coming years.

GNLM