RANGOON — Former political prisoner Yan Naing is a politician and activist from the Irrawaddy Delta. A member of Burma’s Muslim minority, he was a second generation supporter of the National League for Democracy.
As a campaign manager for an NLD candidate in the 2012 elections, he faced some resistance from inside the party. He left the NLD before the 2015 elections, in which the party failed to field a single Muslim candidate amid rising anti-Muslim and nationalistic rhetoric in Burma.
Yan Naing, a lawyer by profession, joined the United National Congress (UNC), a historically Muslim party, and ran in Thingangyun constituency for a Lower House seat. Like all his fellow UNC candidates, as well as many other non-NLD candidates, he lost.
He spoke again to Myanmar Now about his thoughts on the future of Muslims in Burma as the new NLD government prepares to take office. (Courtesy of Irrawaddy)
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