Myanmar to elect president next week: No hope for Suu Kyi

Election of the President in Myanmar, advanced by one week, will be held on March 10 when members of the Parliament voted in the November 8 polls will choose the new leader for transition of power from half a century military rule. But democracy, peace and stability in Myanmar beset with ethnic wars and the army enjoying enormous power remained an elusive. Bangladesh, a close door neighbour has reason to be worried at the prospect.

“We are going to hold the meetings for MPs to be able to elect the president and vice-presidents on March 10, Thursday, a week earlier than was previously announced,” Win Khaing Than, speaker of Myanmar’s combined houses of parliament, told lawmakers on Tuesday. This will leave no more time for Aung San Suu Kyi to strike a deal for amendment to the con stitution paving the way for her taking part in the presidential race.

It is apparent that negotiations so far between the National League for Democracy (NLD) that swept the national polls and the powerful army for transition of power ended without result. The hope of democratic leader Suu Kyi’s becoming the president has faded away. In all likelihood the army and NLD will share powers in the government that comes into operation on April 1.

Suu Kyi is not beyond criticism. She is guilty of her conscious for maintaining silence when the Rohingya Muslims were persecuted last year. The government of General Thein sein rendered Muslims stateless and herded them to refugee camps. The silence of Suu Kyi on the atrocities on the Muslims was unbecoming of a Nobel Laureate.

It is still unclear who will take over from President Thein  Sein, the former general who has steered dramatic reforms since 2011. The constitution allowed the powerful military 25 percent of parliamentary seats who will choose one of three candidates for the president. The other two candidates will be chosen by the elected members of the lower and upper houses, which are dominated by NLD.

In typically cryptic comments on the leadership issue, NLD party spokesman Win Htein said they stand behind an eventual Suu Kyi presidency.”Aung San Suu Kyi must become the president… it just depends on whether it is now or later,” he told reporters in the capital Naypyidaw.

The constitution bars those with foreign children and spouses from the top office. Suu Kyi’s late husband was British, as are her two sons. Despite that she claimed she would be “above” whoever succeeds President Thein Sein. How? She did not elaborate. The handover from a half-century of military rule to a popularly elected government seem complex and not easy. The NLD is haunted by the memory of a 1990 elections which it won in a landslide but the junta blocked it from taking power.

The new president will emerge from a vote by the combined houses. With its mandatory parliamentary bloc, the military holds an effective veto on constitutional change and will also retain other major political and economic powers.

Since the election results giving NLD a landslide victory, the party complained of not getting cooperation from the army backed administration of President Thein Sein. Rift between them is clear. Last week, the NLD criticized the military and the army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) over a controversial copper mine project, run as a joint venture between a Chinese weapons manufacturer and the Myanmar military. It also nearly completed the process on some other lucrative public works projects awarded by the outgoing government at the last minute.

Showing courage, the military MPs stood up, one of the members of the army caucus rejected the NLD’s allegations in parliament.”Present government is responsible only to the previous parliament that formed it,” said Thein Sein’s spokesman, Ye Htut, backing ministers who refused to come to parliament to face questioning by the NLD.

The heated debate showed the challenges facing Suu Kyi as she tries to overcome years of corrosive distrust between the army and pro-democracy activists. Now both sides are likely to share power. The military controls a large chunk of the country’s administration through three security ministries, has guaranteed a quarter of the seats in the parliament and a constitutional veto.

Ethnic problem continues to hunt the country. So far, nationwide ceasefire has been signed with eight out of as many as 23 armed ethnic groups. Negotiations are likely to continue by the new government to placate other groups into ceasefire agreement. A significant number of armed ethnic groups not signed agreement are at war with government forces. They are larger than those signed agreement. The main among them are Kachin and Shan, which are the key to sustainable peace.

Source: Weekly Holiday