Posts Tagged ‘National League for Democracy’
Suu Kyi selected to remain Myanmar opposition head
Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi speaks during the second day session of first ever congress of her National League for Democracy party at Royal Rose restaurant in Yangon, Myanmar, Sunday, March 10, 2013. Suu Kyi has been elected head of the new executive board of Myanmar’s opposition National League for Democracy, as the party has a makeover to adjust itself to the country’s new democratic framework. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)
10-3-2013
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Aung San Suu Kyi was selected Sunday to remain head of Myanmar’s main opposition party, keeping her leadership post even as the party undergoes a makeover to adjust to the country’s new democratic framework.
The Nobel laureate was named chairwoman of the National League for Democracy’s new executive board on the final day of a landmark three-day party congress attended by 894 delegates from around the country.
The congress also expanded the group’s Central Executive Committee from seven members to 15, in a revitalization and reform effort ahead of Myanmar’s 2015 general election. The party is seeking to infuse its ranks with new faces, expertise and diversity without sidelining long-standing members.
“We have to see how effectively and efficiently the new leaders can perform their duties,” said Suu Kyi, who has led the NLD since its inception in 1988. “We hope they will learn through experience.”
Suu Kyi is the sole holdover from the party’s original executive board when it was founded, but the other new members are also mostly long-serving party loyalists. A broader Central Committee of 120 members was elected by the delegates and endorsed the executive board, which was given five reserve members.
The party, which came into being as the army was crushing a mass pro-democracy uprising in 1988, won a 1990 general election that was nullified by the then-ruling military. The NLD boycotted a 2010 general election, but after a military-backed elected government took office in 2011 and instituted democratic reforms, it contested by-elections in 2012, winning 43 of 44 seats and putting Suu Kyi into parliament.
Emerging from repression that limited its actions — not least because Suu Kyi and other senior NLD members spent years under detention — Suu Kyi vowed in her opening speech Saturday to inject the party with “new blood” and decentralize decision-making.
She said the NLD would go through an experimental stage with the new leadership and should anticipate some obstacles but “not be discouraged.”
Although the 2012 by-election results showed that the NLD still has broad and deep appeal, the party faces challenges.
The army-backed ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party of President Thein Sein, besides being well-financed and enjoying the benefits of controlling the bureaucracy, has staked out a position as reformist.
It can boast of freeing the press, releasing most of the country’s political prisoners and convincing foreign nations to lift most economic sanctions they had imposed against the former military regime for its poor human rights record. It hopes that opening up Myanmar, also known as Burma, to foreign investment will kick-start a moribund economy and win it popular appeal.
On the other side of the political spectrum, the NLD’s agreement to play by parliamentary rules — in effect endorsing Thein Sein’s reform efforts — leaves an opening for more hard-core anti-military activists to win over a share of disaffected voters who prefer a quicker pace of change than now allowed under the army-dictated constitution.
Speaking to the party meeting after her selection as chairman on Sunday, Suu Kyi said that in choosing executive board members there was an effort to include women, members of ethnic minorities and younger people, in addition to members with a record of continuous party service. Four women and several ethnic minority members are on the new board.
Suu Kyi acknowledged to reporters that younger members were underrepresented on the Central Executive Committee compared to the bigger Central Committee.
“We need experienced members who know the policies, tradition and history of the party and who had been in the party for the last 25 years,” said Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize while under house arrest. “After some time, the younger generation will take over their place. There should be connectivity between the past, present and future.”
Suu Kyi’s colleagues expressed satisfaction with the meeting’s results.
“The new CEC and Central Committee members will enjoy the trust of the majority because we are elected democratically. I believe we will be able to carry out our work more effectively,” May Win Myint, a veteran NLD member jailed many times for her activities, said after being elected to the executive board.
Kyi Phyu Shin, a well-known film director who became an NLD member six months ago and was elected to the Central Committee, said she was “very confident that the NLD will become a tight organization, very active and competitive. The congress helps institute better democratic practices in the NLD.”
Myanmar opposition holds first party congress
8-3-2013 YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Nearly 900 representatives from Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party gathered Friday in Myanmar’s main city to elect their leadership for the first time in the group’s 25-year history.
It is a sign of how far Myanmar has come with political reforms that the gathering, which runs through Sunday in Yangon, is allowed at all. It’s also a test for the National League for Democracy, which is working to transform itself from a party of one into a structurally viable political opposition in time for national elections in 2015.
NLD officials hope the first all-party congress will make the structure and operations of the party more reflective of its democratic ideals and infuse its aging ranks with youth, diversity and new expertise.
“Our party must be renewed and reformed,” said Tin Oo, 86, who helped found the NLD and is overseeing the organization of the all-party congress. “We are going to advocate for democracy, so our party must be based on democratization.”
Forged under authoritarian rule, the NLD has been, in some ways, a mirror image of the country’s ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party. Unable to convene party meetings, with its leaders often jailed and the party itself officially banned for much of its existence, the NLD could not hold elections. Leaders had to be appointed. Secret and summary decisions had to be made. And in the unforgiving narrative of repression which has long governed Myanmar there were heroes who were not to be questioned any more than the villains they fought.
“Our party was a democratic party and the party was run by people not elected but selected; individuals like myself and Aung San Suu Kyi,” said Win Tin, 83, a journalist and one of the NLD’s three surviving founders.
In November 1988, within two months of the NLD’s founding, the party’s top leadership began planning an all-party congress to elect local and national level leaders, but was only able to hold a few township elections.
“Then all of us were sent to jail and kept there for a long time,” said Win Tin.
On Friday morning, representatives from across the country stood in neat lines outside the Taw Win restaurant, waiting to be screened for entry. Above them a row of red NLD party flags, decorated with yellow fighting peacocks, fluttered in the early light. The mood was ebullient and hopeful, as people greeted old friends and colleagues.
“I am very excited to be here,” said Nan, a 46-year old from a ruby-rich area of the northern Mandalay region, who goes by one name. “This is a step in the right direction and we hope to see the NLD transforming into a more democratic structure, in line with the changes taking place in the country.”
In addition to electing leadership committees and a party chairman at the congress, the party aims to decide on a coherent policy platform this weekend. Win Tin hopes a new, younger generation of leaders who better reflect the country’s ethnic diversity will emerge.
“At least we will have picked some people capable of leadership,” he said. “We hope. We don’t know yet.”
The structure of democracy is one thing, its culture another. Most members of the NLD, like the people of Myanmar itself, understand the contours of democracy only through its absence. This lack of a developed political culture, some party members say, contributed to infighting and irregularities that marred some of the more than 17,000 local elections the party has convened since mid-2012 in preparation for the congress.
The years of repression and Suu Kyi’s unique, iconic stature — she is greeted by villagers with cries of “Long live mother!” — have also centralized decision-making, which critics say is bad for the broader project of democracy in the country and could weaken the NLD in upcoming elections.
“All the party decisions are dependent on just Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and became a burden to her,” said Yan Myo Thein, a 43-year-old former student activist and political analyst, who is not a member of the NLD. “The decisions are made only by one person and this is bad for the future of the country and the country’s reforms. If the party goes on like this, the support of the people on NLD will waver.”
These days, the tables outside the NLD’s Yangon headquarters are littered with the junk of celebrity. There are Aung San Suu Kyi mugs, key chains, postcards, posters, photos, pins, fans and even a few corporate day planners. All are for sale.
Inside, the tight, two-story space is plastered with her image — ever beautiful and poised — and that of her father, General Aung San, who is regarded as the founder of independent Myanmar.
One could be forgiven for mistaking the place a shrine, except for the general dishevelment and buzz of activity.
Some argue that the NLD needs a single, strong leader in order to tackle their formidable opponents from the ruling USDP party — men who come from the military and understand the power of hierarchy and loyalty — but others fear that the party is not currently strong enough to survive without Suu Kyi.
Phyu Phyu Thin, an HIV activist and an NLD parliamentarian, doesn’t want to speculate on a future without her.
“We pray for her good health,” she said.
Over tea and cookies with Burma’s icon
Sunday, Jun 24, 2012
She cooks, fixes leaks and can live without a cell phone or the Internet. And she’s proud of her country’s lotus shawls.
Aung San Suu Kyi, known as an international symbol of democracy, is a simple woman who finds pleasure in the simple joys of life. And revels in the kindness of her two sons.
It was a close friend, a Nobel Peace laureate like her, who arranged my meeting with Suu Kyi at her home one day after Christmas of 2010. Finally going to that old mansion by the lake on University Avenue in Burma’s (Myanmar) capital, Rangoon, was the realization of a longtime aspiration to meet Burma’s icon of democracy.
How did Daw Suu (daw is an honorific for a revered woman, literally meaning “aunt”) maintain her sanity during those 20 years of house arrest?
In her marked calm manner, she said nonchalantly that she literally had to plug the leaks of her ancestral home. She confessed to receiving all her news from a transistor radio during those dark years as she had no cell phone or computer that had access to the Internet. In fact, at the time of our visit, her application for Internet connection was still pending.
She expressed her interest in cooking while serving me and my sons tea and cookies. In fact, she even welcomed the idea of having a Filipino cookbook (which I eventually sent).
Proud of the rural livelihoods in her country, Daw Suu advised me to go to Inle Lake and buy the traditional lotus shawl culled from the lotus flower so abundant in Burma. I did as told and did not regret her suggestion.
On more serious matters, Daw Suu expressed appreciation for the Philippines’ consistent and steadfast support of her quest for democratic reforms in Burma. She, in fact, wrote a handwritten letter to President Aquino, which I personally handed to him.
However, she expressed disappointment with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), noting that it is not cohesive enough and does not stand up for her cause, so unlike the African nations who rallied behind the opposition leader of Ivory Coast at that time.
But she said it was understandable due to the economic interests of some Asean nations.
When asked if she would eventually submit herself to another election, she said she would only consider such in an inclusive political process. At that time, it did not seem imminent.
She said she would visit Thailand and Norway once she is allowed to travel again, which was what she exactly did.
She is once again calling attention to Burma.
Sons’ kindness
There was never any trace of bitterness or anger in her words or demeanor during our conversation. She was always calm and serene, firm yet gentle, beautiful in her simplicity.
She did not seem bothered at all that we were intruding on an afternoon after Christmas. She spoke lengthily to my sons and said they were the first non-Burmese youth she had seen and met in 20 years. That was touching.
She spoke of kindness, as she did on her long-delayed acceptance speech for her 1991 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. But this time, she spoke of her sons’ kindness, saying they never blamed her for their situation, considering that she had not seen them for a very long time. At this point, I could not help but shed a tear, as a mother, as a woman.
Daw Suu spoke much of the sufferings of her people and the need for basic health care, employment, nutrition and of justice for the many who are maimed, abused and killed. She stressed the need for ethnic conciliation and for harmony of the various ethnicities.
Suu Kyi stands for the ideal social consciousness, of the need for compassion, of the belief in democracy, freedom and the fair and just treatment of every human being and the capacity of every human being to act with compassion, strength, courage and determination.
Faded portrait
During our visit to the country, we noticed a framed, faded portrait of a young Suu Kyi in the backroom of a lacquerware shop in Bagan, an ancient city located in the Mandalay Region of Burma. It was placed on the top shelf in place of an image of the Buddha or a long-lost parent. This was in December 2010, just over a month after the release of the Burmese prodemocracy leader from house arrest. Even then, conspicuous acknowledgment of the Lady, as she is often called, was simply not done.
Gesturing toward the photograph, I mentioned Daw Suu’s nascent freedom. The shop owner beamed, and was quick to declare that the portrait had stayed there all throughout Daw Suu’s imprisonment. This felt like a silent yet staunch act of protest.
Yes, the portrait may have been left in the very rear of the shop, only a flickering fluorescent lamp illuminating it, but it was wreathed in silk garlands, and was an obvious source of pride and inspiration. The shop owner, a warm, excitable woman, began to speak of Daw Suu in a hushed, considered tone: “We love her. We have hope. We believe she can help Burma.”
It seemed as if she was speaking for the entire country. As my sons and I discreetly spoke with more Burmese people, it soon became clear that she may as well have been.
Reader’s: Banyan:A fly in the ointment
Myanmar’s repugnant and undemocratic constitution will haunt the process of reform
Economist, Apr 28th 2012 | from the print edition
NOBODY ever expected Myanmar’s democratic dawn to come up quite like thunder. But after the euphoria of by-elections on April 1st, in which the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) won 43 out of 45 seats, it did seem to be approaching fast. This week it was put back a little. On April 23rd the NLD’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and its other successful candidates refused to take up their seats in parliament. There were echoes of the day in November 1995 when the NLD pulled out of the national convention drafting the constitution, and was left in the political wilderness. But the party played down its latest protest: not a “boycott”, it insisted, merely a “postponement”.
Indeed, the proximate cause of its withdrawal seems trivial and bureaucratic. Yet the underlying problem is fundamental to the country’s hopes of democracy. That is a constitution foisted on Myanmar’s people by the former junta in a farcical referendum in 2008 (a 92.48% “yes” vote on a turnout of 98.12% in a poll held just after the devastation and chaos of Cyclone Nargis).
The row was over the oath used to swear in members of parliament, requiring them to promise to “safeguard” this constitution. It seems odd that the NLD should be asked to swear this. One of the concessions made by the “civilian” government installed last year after a rigged parliamentary election in 2010 was to amend the electoral law. To persuade the NLD to join the political process, eligible parties no longer had to “safeguard” the constitution but to “respect” or “honour” it. So the inconsistency with the oath looks like an oversight. Thein Sein, the president, whose apparent commitment to reform was a chief factor in winning over Miss Suu Kyi, has been away in Japan. Perhaps, in his absence, nobody had the clout or the will to fix the matter.
It may not be quite so straightforward, however. The oath is actually incorporated as an annex to the constitution itself. And one of that charter’s most objectionable features is that it can only be amended with the consent of 75% of the members of parliament. (Another, not entirely coincidental, is that 25% of the seats are reserved for the army.) The upset has drawn attention to the big unanswered questions about Myanmar’s “democratisation”. Will the army ever accept amendment of the constitution? And, if not, what meaning will democracy have?
It is a document of the army, by the army, for the army. The president must have “military knowledge”. “All affairs” of the armed forces, including budgets and promotions, are beyond civilian control. A state of emergency can be declared by the president after consultation with a National Defence Security Council, dominated by the army high command and the ministry of defence. Thereafter, power is transferred to the armed forces commander-in-chief, who has the right to exercise the powers of legislature, executive and judiciary. It also provides immunity to the former junta for any misdeeds in office.
No wonder Miss Suu Kyi has campaigned on a platform of constitutional reform. Parties representing Myanmar’s many ethnic minorities want other big changes, too—to reduce central-government as well as military domination. The limited devolution of power that the charter envisages falls far short of the federal structure many hope for.
No wonder, either, that there is little sign on the part of the army that it has any intention of even discussing relinquishing its power and perks. In a speech to mark Armed Forces Day on March 27th, the commander-in-chief, General Min Aung Hlaing, said the army has an obligation to defend the constitution and will continue to take part in politics. Even the reforming Thein Sein, in a speech on March 1st marking the first anniversary of the transition to civilian rule, declared: “Our country is in transition to a system of democracy with the constitution as the core.”
This was hardly a surprise from the former general. Since 2003 Myanmar’s leaders have been following a seven-stage “road map to discipline-flourishing democracy”, the first four stages of which entailed drafting and embedding the constitution. But it does raise serious questions about the limits to Myanmar’s reforms, and of how foreign governments should react.
Nobody can deny that Myanmar has already been transformed, hugely for the better. Many—though far from all—political prisoners have been released. The press enjoys unheard-of freedom. Miss Suu Kyi and 42 of her party are elected legislators. Liberalising economic reforms, notably of the exchange rate, have attracted a gold rush of excited foreign businesses.
To the spoilers, the victory
To reward all these positive changes, Western governments now seem to be racing each other to ease the sanctions they imposed on the junta. America and Australia have lifted some restrictions. On April 21st Japan waived nearly $4 billion in debt arrears. And on April 23rd the European Union “suspended” for one year all sanctions other than an arms embargo. Its restrictions cover: dealings with the Burmese timber, mining and gems industries; visas for members of the army and of the junta; a freeze on the assets of hundreds of individuals and firms; and the suspension of all but humanitarian aid. To ensure the measures could easily be reimposed in the event of backsliding on reform, they are suspended, not lifted. In a statement on the sanctions decision, Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign-policy chief, said the EU was looking for progress on releasing political prisoners and ending ethnic conflicts. She did not mention the constitution at all, let alone demand explicitly that it be amended to a document embodying something closer to democracy as understood elsewhere.
Some in Myanmar see a danger in the sudden opening up of their country. A bonanza in foreign trade and investment as foreign sanctions are relaxed could end up benefiting above all the very soldiers and cronies the sanctions were intended to punish. After all, these men retain their economic interests. From this perspective all the boasts of political reform look less like a blueprint for democracy, and more like the generals’ pension plan.
—————————————————————————————————————Correction: The above article was amended on April 28th 2012 to correct errors in the original description of the 2008 constitution. Banyan quoted from an unofficial and inaccurate translation. The article asserted that the National Defence Security Council (NDSC) could declare a state of emergency, when in fact that is the prerogative of the president after consulting the NDSC.
Aung San Suu Kyi is sworn in to Myanmar’s parliament
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (centre) along with other elected members of parliament reads her parliamentary oath at the lower house of parliament during a session in Naypyidaw on May 2, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
NAYPYIDAW (AFP) – Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sworn in as a member of parliament on Wednesday, opening a new chapter in the Nobel laureate’s near quarter-century struggle against oppression.
The 66-year-old stood to read the parliamentary oath in unison with 33 other members of her National League for Democracy party who were elected to the lower house in April, an AFP reporter said.
The signing of the oath marks a dramatic transformation in the fortunes of the 66-year-old who was held under house arrest for much of the past 20 years but is now central to the nation’s tentative transition to democracy.
The oath, taken in front of lower house speaker Shwe Mann, states members will ‘safeguard and abide by the Constitution of the Union’ and ‘hold always in esteem (the) non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty.’
Ms Suu Kyi had initially refused to swear the oath, objecting specifically to the ‘safeguard’ element of the army-created constitution.
But on Monday, she retreated from that position having failed to secure a compromise on the wording from President Thein Sein who heads the nation’s nominally civilian government.
Suu Kyi, her party to attend parliament Wednesday
AP,30 april 2012
FILE – In this April 28, 2012 file …
Myanmar President Thein Sein, right, …
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Aung San Suu Kyi said she and other lawmakers in her opposition party will attend Myanmar’s parliament on Wednesday for the first time and will take the oath of office though they still fiercely dispute its wording.
Suu Kyi said she was not backing down on the issue, however, and that her party would continue to seek constitutional change through legislative actions. The oath is part of the constitution, and her party also seeks to change other statutes it considers undemocratic.
“Politics is an issue of give and take,” she told reporters in the main city, Yangon, on Monday. “We are not giving up, we are just yielding to the aspirations of the people.”
Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy object to phrasing in the oath that obligates them to “safeguard the constitution,” which was drafted under military rule and ensures the army inordinate power.
The party wants “safeguard” replaced with “respect,” a change made in other laws including electoral legislation that enabled Suu Kyi’s party to officially enter politics for the first time in decades.
But their failure to take up their seats had irked some of Suu Kyi’s backers, who are eager to see the person who has stood up to Myanmar’s military for 23 years finally take her place in the legislature.
The apparent resolution of the deadlock came as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was visiting Myanmar to encourage democratization and reform.
Ban told reporters he respected Suu Kyi’s decision.
“I’m sure that this will contribute very positively,” he said. “This evening I had a brief exchange of views on that matter with President Thein Sein, and he also believes that this will contribute harmonious working relations between President Thein Sein and Aung San Suu Kyi.”
In an address to the country’s parliament on Monday, Ban called for the international community to lift sanctions it imposed on Myanmar in response to the previous military junta’s repression and to increase aid for the country’s development.
“The best way for the international community to support reform is to invest in it,” he said.
His visit is the latest in a series by foreign dignitaries since Thein Sein’s reform campaign gathered steam by winning Suu Kyi’s endorsement.
Thein Sein came to power a year ago after a general election that left the military in firm control but signaled a desire for political reconciliation.
The NLD participated in elections on April 1 for the first time since 1990, when it won a landslide victory that was promptly annulled by the army.
Suu Kyi said ethnic lawmakers in parliament had appealed to her party to resolve the issue from within the assembly, which is overwhelmingly dominated by the pro-military ruling party and military appointees.
“We are fulfilling the wishes of the people, because the people want the NLD to enter parliament,” Suu Kyi said.
Myanmar opposition leader to discuss parliament boycott
AFP 20 April 2012
YANGON (AFP) – Newly elected members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party are due to meet Friday to consider boycotting parliament because of a deepening row about the constitutional oath, a senior member said.
It is the first sign of serious discord between Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) and the reformist regime since April 1 by-elections that gave the former political prisoner her first-ever seat in parliament.
A senior NLD member travelled to Naypyidaw on Thursday to ask the government to change the wording of the swearing-in oath from “safeguard” to “respect” the constitution, which was drawn up by the country’s former military rulers.
“Officials at the constitutional tribunal office refused to amend the wording. So we will discuss again today at our headquarters,” said one of the new NLD parliamentarians who asked not to be named.
“Whether we attend the parliament will depend on the outcome of the meeting. We haven’t made any firm decision yet,” he said.
The NLD wants to appeal to President Thein Sein to resolve the issue, but the former general is overseas on a visit to Japan, according to a government official in Naypyidaw.
Suu Kyi, who spent 15 of the past 22 years locked up by the former junta, has been invited along with the other parliamentarians to take their seats in the lower house on Monday after their recent by-election victory.
Observers say the regime needs Suu Kyi in parliament to bolster the legitimacy of its political system and spur an easing of Western sanctions.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner has said one of her priorities will be to push for an amendment of the 2008 constitution, under which one quarter of the seats in parliament are reserved for unelected military officials.
The NLD secured 43 of the 44 seats it contested in this month’s elections, becoming the main opposition force in a national parliament that remains dominated by the military and its political allies.
The vote was largely praised as a step towards democracy by the international community, and Western nations are beginning to lift or suspend sanctions on Myanmar to encourage reforms.
Myanmar president meets Aung San Suu Kyi ahead of water festival
YANGON, April 11 (Xinhua) — Myanmar president U Thein Sein met with by-election-winning leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) Aung San Suu Kyi in Nay Pyi Taw Wednesday, two days ahead of Myanmar Water Festival, according to official sources.
It is expected that the pair would discuss democratization and peace process with ethnic armed groups as well as parliamentary affairs.
The talks between U Thein Sein and Suu Kyi, which represented the second after the first on Aug. 19, 2011, came 10 days after the April 1 by-elections, in which the NLD swept a total of 43 parliamentary seats out of 45, of which all 37 seats with the House of Representatives, four with the House of Nationalities and all two with the Region or State parliaments.
Aung San Suu Kyi herself, who was elected as member of House of Representatives for the first time in the by-elections, contested by 17 political parties, is prepared to attend, along with her party’s other parliamentary representatives-elect, the adjourned third session of the parliament to be resumed on April 23 as officially informed.
During their first meeting in August 2011 soon after Aung San Suu Kyi’s release on Nov. 13, 2010, Thein Sein and Aung San Suu Kyi had discussions on prospect on cooperation for the common interest of the nation and the people, agreeing to put aside the disagreements and pursue four points — to join hand in hand to carry out tasks for the country’s stability and peace and development to fulfill the wish of the people; to cooperate constructively for the development of the country’s economic and social affair and for the development of democracy system; to avoid disputed views and carry out cooperative tasks on reciprocal basis; and to continue dialogue.
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi meets Karen ethnic rebels…smart politic intensified Suu Kyi power
Myanmar opposition leader Aung …
8 April 2012 (AFP)—Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi met Sunday with Karen ethnic minority rebels in her first significant foray into politics since her election to public office a week earlier.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who won her first-ever seat in parliament in April 1 by-elections, held about two hours of talks with delegates from the Karen National Union in Yangon.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) leader described the meeting as a “significant event” that would help to foster national reconciliation.
She added: “As the NLD’s goal is to have true democratic unity, we believe all ethnicities should be included in this process together.”
The talks came a day after the KNU delegates met Myanmar’s reformist President Thein Sein in the capital Naypyidaw for the first time.
Myanmar considers the group — whose leadership is based in Thailand — to be an illegal organisation.
Its armed wing has been waging Myanmar’s longest-running insurgency, battling the government since 1949 in the eastern jungle near the Thai border.
The KNU signed a pact with the new reform-minded government in January this year in a move that raised hopes of a permanent end to one of the world’s oldest civil conflicts.
KNU general secretary Zipporah Sein said her group had asked Thein Sein to reconsider the ban on her organisation because its status “is a danger, scary and worrisome for the people in this country.”
Suu Kyi, who has suggested she will use her position as a lawmaker to try to help resolve the ethnic issue, said it would be better if there were no banned organisations in Myanmar.
The NLD leader is largely well-regarded in minority areas, but she is also seen as a member of the majority Burman elite.
Civil war has gripped parts of the country formerly known as Burma since its independence in 1948, and an end to the conflicts is a key demand of the international community.
Tentative peace deals have been inked with several rebel groups as part of the government’s reform agenda, but ongoing fighting in northern Kachin state has overshadowed the reconciliation effort.
On Friday the KNU and the government negotiated a 13-point deal, including a code of conduct to ensure civilian safety and an agreement to make plans for the resettlement of internal refugees and de-mining.
The Karen, one of at least 135 ethnic groups in Myanmar, make up about seven percent of Myanmar’s population.
Fighting and human rights abuses in Karen state have forced tens of thousands of refugees across the border into Thailand.
By-elections in Myanmar: The Lady of all landslides
Aung San Suu Kyi’s win is a humiliation for the army. Will it now turn nasty?
7 April 2012 | YANGON | Economist
The boisterous, joyful scenes throughout the evening of April 1st outside the headquarters in Yangon of the National League for Democracy (NLD) said it all. Myanmar’s main opposition party was on course for a huge victory in the day’s historic by-elections. Every ten minutes or so news of yet another unfeasibly good result would be posted up on a digital display screen facing the street, provoking even more ecstatic cheering from the huge crowd gathered outside. These were extraordinary scenes in a country that just over a year ago was a hushed and fearful military dictatorship.
Over the following days the government confirmed the NLD’s landslide. The party contested 44 of the 45 seats on offer to the federal parliament in Naypyidaw. These were the first elections it had taken part in since 1990, and it won 43 of them (the government’s single win came in a constituency where the NLD candidate was disqualified). The result surpassed the party’s most optimistic expectations. In some seats they seem to have won over 90% of the vote, including in a hardscrabble constituency on the edge of the capital, where hardly a vote was cast against Aung San Suu Kyi.
The NLD’s triumph spells humiliation for the regime. Support for the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the proxy for an army that has ruled the country since 1962, was all but wiped out in these constituencies. It could not even win a seat in the government’s own backyard. Four were up for grabs in the regime’s gaudy capital of Naypyidaw, where perhaps half the voters are directly employed by the government. They had been promised extra goodies to support the USDP. But still, they voted for the NLD.
The victory is more symbolic than practical. The NLD won only 6% of the 650-odd seats in parliament. Its participation will make little legislative difference, and the army remains very much in charge. One NLD leader, Tin Oo, hopes that the mere presence of Miss Suu Kyi in parliament will shake things up, and that her oratory will change some minds. Maybe, but the 2008 constitution reserves a quarter of the seats for army-appointed MPs who know exactly where to take their orders from.
Rather, it is to the 2015 general election that everyone is now looking. The previous vote, in late 2010, was heavily rigged in favour of the USDP, which won most of the seats, if only because the NLD boycotted the poll. Were Sunday’s by-election results repeated at the national level, the USDP would be annihilated, reduced to a parliamentary rump of its unelected military MPs. At that point, the game would pretty much be up for the army. The NLD and opposition parties from the areas of the ethnic Karen, Kachin and others would have a majority and Miss Suu Kyi, perhaps, would be president.
Though the NLD can hardly wait for that day, the prospect must deeply worry the generals and their satraps. Their reaction to these by-elections will thus be watched closely over the coming weeks. The generals may well have wanted Miss Suu Kyi to take up a seat in parliament, in order to reflect well on the reform process begun by President Thein Sein. But their own ritual humiliation was not part of the plan. They have very publicly been stripped of all legitimacy.
Mid-ranking officers in Naypyidaw are said to be “angry”. The worry is that they will now turn against Mr Thein Sein, who they may fear is leading them to political oblivion. Some factions of the army were never happy with the reform programme in the first place, let alone with its hectic pace. Defeat in by-elections could provide them with the pretext to try to stall further reforms, or maybe even to turn back the clock. Mr Thein Sein called the by-elections “successful”, and some army officers hope that Myanmar will follow Indonesia’s example a dozen years ago and take the path towards democracy. But diplomats and other foreign observers admit that the army is a closed book to outsiders.
That is why the euphoria is tinged with danger. Myanmar is entering a decisive phase in its political transition. The diehards in the army’s higher command now face having quickly to come to terms with a process that, for the first time, looks as if it is slipping beyond their control. Or they will have to act while they still can.
Miss Suu Kyi, modest in victory, has helped. She insisted her supporters not indulge in triumphalism. But now it is up to the officers whether Myanmar is truly to enjoy the “new era” Miss Suu Kyi proclaimed the day after her triumph. Everyone knows where she now stands: just outside the presidential palace.
