In frank comments to the combined houses of parliament later Tuesday, Shwe Mann said that he had received a letter following his removal that outlined accusations including using party funds without transparency and not following the constitution.
Advertisement
The political upheaval comes as Myanmar battles one of its worst natural disasters in years, with flash floods and landslides caused by heavy monsoon rains that have left scores dead and over 1.3 million affected.
Shwe Mann had lost the support of conservatives in the party, in part because of his close ties to the wildly popular Suu Kyi.
As troops surrounded the party’s headquarters in Nay Pyi Tawon on Wednesday night, it quickly became apparent that an internal military-backed putsch was taking place. “We will take action if anything interferes with parliament”.
Her party was already expected to win the most seats in the November election, seen as a crucial test of the country’s democratic reforms.
Shwe Mann has said little publicly since his sacking.In a Facebook post on Saturday, he said he would do nothing to endanger the country or the people, and that neither should anybody else.
Shwe Mann’s allies vowed to defend him in parliament.
The MPs could excuse themselves, he said, but there was important business to attend to in the parliamentary chambers.
Cherry FM, a radio station linked to Shwe Mann’s daughter-in-law, was suspended on Saturday until after the election after it was unable to convince the ministry it was able to be impartial or that it would not issue announcements on what was happening to Shwe Mann, Ye Htut told reporters on Tuesday.
“We will carry on as usual”, she said, when asked what she planned for the parliamentary session.
Both men are former junta generals who shed their uniforms to contest controversial elections in 2010, held without the main opposition or Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest.
The changes were formalised at a party meeting yesterday, with Thura U Shwe Mann agreeing to hand over the reins to the president’s hand-picked party chair, U Htay Oo. “I think it’s not right the way they did what they did in our party”. Tensions were exacerbated last week when the names of almost 100 newly retired military members did not make it onto the party’s candidate lists.
His removal came just before Friday’s deadline for candidates to register to stand in the polls, allowing Thein Sein to insert political and military allies into the top echelons of the USDP.
They were Soe Thein, a powerful minister of the president’s office, and Aung Min, who was picked by Thein Sein to lead the government’s efforts to forge a peace agreement with the country’s armed ethnic groups.
Advertisement
“So my best advice for him is “resign from the speaker’s position if you want to prevent further perils for you and your family”.
