HOPE FOR DEMOCRACY
Democratic election victory projected for human rights advocate Aung San Suu Kyi
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi appears headed for victory in Burmese election
RANGOON, BURMA— The day after millions in Burma voted peacefully in the country’s first democratic election in years, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party Monday confidently projected victory as the ruling party began to speak of defeat.
Htay Oo, the acting chairman of the ruling military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, told Reuters: “We lost,” although there has been no concession statement. Some official vote tallies are expected by the end of the day, but final totals could take several days.
Suu Kyi, 70, whose long battle for democracy in Burma, also known as Myanmar, made her an international human rights icon, appeared at the National League for Democracy headquarters in Rangoon Monday morning to a cheering throng, saying it was “too early” to start congratulating winners.
But, she added, “I think you all have an idea of the results.”
Millions of the country’s 30 million voters had braved hot sun and long lines to cast their ballots in the historic election Sunday, the first national democratic vote in 25 years.
More than 10,000 election observers were on hand to make sure the process went smoothly, but concerns rose Monday over claims that a number of ballots flowed in late that tipped the balance for the military- backed USDP in some races in further-flung states.
“People stood hours in line in the sun and celebrated yesterday and today there is a huge disappointment because their vote didn’t count,” said Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch, who observed voting in Kachin state.
Hundreds of supporters of the NLD remained on the street after voting in front of the party headquarters, waving red balloons, dancing and celebrating.
They watched the preliminary vote counting on big-screen TVs until late in the night, cheering every time a yellow ballot was unfurled with a stamp next to a golden peacock, the symbol for the NLD.
“We have been suffering for 25 years. Today, we change the old system and bring in a new one,” Theingi, a homemaker and mother of two, said. She uses only one name.
Suu Kyi’s party leaders predicted huge victory margins at the polls in the Southeast Asian nation of 51 million, which was isolated from the world for more than a half century under a military dictatorship.
But the path to victory is hardly clear.
Party members appear to be confident they will get the majority needed to govern. But the military will still control 25 per cent of the seats in parliament and key ministries. A constitutional provision bars Suu Kyi, called “Mother Suu,” from becoming president. And Burma has more than 90 parties — smaller groups that support the nation’s ethnic minorities — that will also play a factor in forming a new government.
Suu Kyi had said earlier in the week that if her party wins the majority of seats in parliament, she will govern the country despite the constitutional barrier.
“I’m going to be above the president,” she said. When asked how, she responded, “Oh, I have already made plans.”
The country’s president Thein Sein, a former general, said Friday that the government would respect the outcome of the election, and many voters seemed eager to take him at his word.
In Burma’s last democratic election in1990, Suu Kyi and the NLD won an overwhelming majority, but the country’s military dictators ignored the results.
They had in 1989 placed her under house arrest, where she remained off and on for nearly two decades.
Burma’s democrats are claiming a decisive moral victory over the military and its allies, in the first credible national elections in 25 years. It’s a cry for freedom in a nation of 52 million people — also known as Myanmar — that has been under a military jackboot for half a century.
In the streets of Rangoon on Monday, the excitement was palpable even before the final ballots were counted.
People cheered the moment Htay Oo, who heads the ruling, military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, confirmed that “we lost” Sunday’s vote. “I’m very happy about the result,” Hnin Si, 60, told Reuters news agency. “The people have suffered for 50 years. I believe Aung San Suu Kyi will make the country a better place.”
That is the hope, to be sure. But the transition from what the United States government once called an “outpost of tyranny” to that better place remains a struggle. The election, while a watershed, was less than truly free, truly fair and truly inclusive. Burma’s embrace of democracy is fragile and comes with an asterisk.
The country’s chief democrat, Aung San Suu Kyi, is one of the world’s iconic faces of freedom, and defiance of tyranny. Yet the Nobel peace laureate and member of parliament known as “The Lady” is barred from serving as president, even though her National League for Democracy (NLD) has swept the country.
Moreover, the military continues to wield excessive power over Burma’s “disciplined democracy.” Acivilian veneer has been put on the government, political prisoners have been freed and the press is less shackled. But the military automatically holds a quarter of seats in parliament, the key defence, interior and border ministries, and has a veto over constitutional change. The nation’s oppressed Rohingya Muslim minority was denied the ballot. And the state-run media won’t air criticism of the military.
Canada has rightly upgraded diplomatic and trade relations in recent years, as President Thein Sein gradually relaxed — but never fully lifted — the regime’s viselike grip. This week’s outcome invites Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new government to make it clear that continued normalization of ties in trade, aid, technology, finance and investment is conditional. As it cultivates better ties with the Western democracies, after being seen for so long as a client state of China, Burma must reform a constitution that elevates the generals above the ballot box and ease them out of power. It also needs to respect minorities and their human rights.
It is a travesty that Suu Kyi can’t be nominated for the presidency next year because of a clause the military forced in the constitution to bar her on the bogus grounds that she has foreign “allegiances” in the form of children who are British citizens. Even so, she boldly intends to govern the country from a position that’s “above the president” after appointing a placeholder. Burma’s power brokers would do better to reform the charter, and let the people choose their president.
The last time Suu Kyi led Burma’s democrats to a landslide election victory, a generation ago in 1990, the military voided the results, threw critics into prison and held Suu Kyi under house arrest for 15 years. That turned the nation into a pariah state, under punishing sanctions.
That isn’t likely to happen today. But the democratic transition is far from assured. The Lady and her forces for change will need the world’s support in the months ahead. And the generals will need watching.
Southeast Asian country of 52 million people held its first credible election in 25 years