Village administrators to return to their offices at AA’s request

03 Jan 2023

DMG Newsroom
3 January 2022, Ponnagyun

Some 90 village administrators in Arakan State’s Rathedaung and Ponnagyun townships who recently submitted resignations have agreed to return to their posts at the request of the United League of Arakan (ULA), the armed wing of the Arakan Army (AA).

The village administrators said they’d resigned from their posts after being caught in the middle of the Myanmar military and AA amid tensions between the two sides.

Local residents have been facing difficulties in administrative matters involving everything from travel to ID cards to simply going to work after administrators resigned. ULA officials summoned them to a meeting on Monday and asked them to return to their work.

“All the administrators that had resigned were summoned yesterday, and instructed to return to their work. There must be administrators for certain administrative matters including provision of cash assistance to pregnant women and children, supplying electricity to villages, applying for certificates of residency and citizenship IDs,” said a village administrator in Ponnagyun Township.

Some 70 village administrators from Ponnagyun Township and 19 village administrators from Rathedaung Township attended the meeting.

More than 70 village administrators from Ponnagyun tendered their resignation letters in the third week of November, and 19 administrators from Rathedaung submitted their resignation letters on December 16.

While the AA has urged them to return to work, it remains unclear how the Myanmar military will handle it, said village administrators.

The regime suspects local administrators of having ties or loyalty to the AA. At the same time, their status as junta-appointed administrators has put them in a difficult position vis-a-vis the AA.

“The ULA/AA has told us to return to work, but we don’t know what the military council thinks. We have submitted resignations because it is difficult for us to work between the two sides,” said an administrator from Rathedaung Township.

An administrator from Ponnagyun Township said he would return to work because his villagers have difficulties applying for citizenship ID cards and to travel.

“Villagers can’t apply for recommendation letters now. Administrators have returned their seals. So, I will return to work,” said the administrator.

DMG was unable to obtain comment from Ponnagyun Township administrator U Maung San Win, and Rathedaung Township administrator U Naing Lin Htet, about the administrators’ plan to return to work.

The AA might have a plan to turn the junta’s administrative mechanism to its own, said political observer U Pe Than.

“Administrators engage with both sides, and the ULA/AA needs to use the administrators, who run the junta’s administrative mechanism. This is why the AA has asked them to return to work, so that it can use them for its own ends,” said U Pe Than.

Many administrators resigned in Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Myebon, Rathedaung and Minbya townships after the Myanmar military arrested administrators during the previous fighting from late 2018 to November 2020.

The AA has observed an informal truce with the Myanmar military on humanitarian grounds since late November, following five months of fighting.