Starting Point
She is an advocate who helped residents from district or village administrators dealing with the Unlawful Associations Act (1908) section 17(1) / 17(2) that connected with a government-declared illegal association. As a representative of the Pyithu Hluttaw, she participated in the Hluttaw Bill Committee. Due to her efforts as the former lawyer and Pyithu Hluttaw representative, she still has influence among the locals and the ethnic armed groups. She is still dealing with ethnic armed groups while she is conducting activities in educating the people and working on regional development. In her opinion, women should participate in all sectors in peace processes as they can act with soft power.
Peace Journey
Since 2015, she has consistently worked for the Peace, Justice Awareness, and Capacity-Building programmes. She educated the youths in the region to raise awareness on justice and federal democracy. She also invited former regional government ministers to share their experiences. She went to places where the UN and other organisations could not reach and donated at her own expense.
As for the challenges, the SAC and the peace committee are under the impression that women are not capable of working for peace processes. The ethnic armed groups also do not want to give priority to women in the same way. Family matters and household responsibilities remain major tasks for women. As a result, women lack self-confidence. This trend should be reversed.
Success Stories
At the first session of the parliament, she submitted a motion to discuss and open the door for ethnic armed groups. As a result, committees to negotiate peace were formed between the government and ethnic armed groups. Although she was not directly involved in the peace process, the locals informed her when there was going to be a fight between armed groups. In such a situation, she managed to prevent the situation from worsening by contacting the Peace Committee or negotiating at the union level. It was done quietly behind the scenes. If the Tatmadaw were to pass through the areas controlled by ethnic armed groups, she negotiated for the safe passage to prevent a conflict.
During the fighting between the two Shan ethnic armed groups, namely the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP) and the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), she organised a Zoom meeting between them. She showed them the local people's losses and evidence due to the fighting and negotiated to prevent it. She reported to SSPP about war crimes committed by Northern Alliance forces, complaints about excessive tax collection and human rights violations. Now, the two groups are cooperating with more than 20 civil society organisations. Regarding the conflicts currently taking place in northern Shan State, she met with officials at the American Embassy, Yangon and explained the actual ground conditions to identify the people involved behind the scenes. She is also trying to get a chance to meet with officials from the Chinese Embassy.
Domestically, she discreetly met with armed groups for negotiations at appropriate places, such as a shop or a jungle. During her trip to China related to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) after her retirement, on behalf of Myanmar women, she spoke about arms smuggling and drug trafficking issues along the Mekong River, the Chinese government's influence on ethnic armed groups SSPP, UWSA, and MNDAA, and their economic relations. She also reported that these ethnic armed groups kept their assets in China.