Burma Socialist Programme Party - Cadre To Mass Party

Cadre To Mass Party

In 1971 BSPP was opened up for mass membership as 'a People's Party'. During the 1960s, there were three types of membership in the BSPP. The first type or tier was that of a 'friend of the Party' (Pati meik-swei). The second type or tier was that of an 'alternate or provisional membership' (Ayan pati-win lending itself to mockery as ayaan meaning reckless) and the third type was that of a 'fully-fledged' Party member (Dinn-pyei pati-win). Under the Party rules of the time once a person became a 'full Party member', unless there were extraordinary reasons such as those of ill-health one could not 'resign from the Party'. A full Party member could only be dismissed from the Party. The BSPP continued to be dominated by the military, and in 1972 more than half of its 73,369 full members was still made up of army or police personnel; Dr. Maung Maung was notably the only civilian in the higher echelons of the party.

Prior to being 'transformed' from a 'cadre Party' to a 'mass Party', the BSPP held four 'seminars', the last one from November 6 to November 11, 1969.

• The first Congress of the BSPP was held from June 28, 1971 to July 11, 1971
• the second in October 1973
• the third in February 1977
• the fourth in August 1981 and
• the fifth in October 1985.

Extraordinary Congresses of the BSPP were held in:

• April 1973
• October 1976
• November 1977
• July 1988 and
• September 1988.

At each regular Congress of the BSPP starting from June 1971 to October 1985, Ne Win was 'elected' and 're-elected' by the BSPP as its Chairman. Each Congress also elected a 150 to 200 member Central Committee and in the later Congresses a 'Central Executive Committee' (roughly equivalent to that of the 'Politburo' in one-Party Communist States though the term 'Politburo' was never used) of about 10 to 15 members were elected.