Myanmar elects its first civilian president
Htin Kyaw set to take office April 1
NAYPYITAW, Myanmar — Myanmar’s parliament elected Htin Kyaw as the country’s new president Tuesday in a watershed moment that ushers the longtime opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi into government after 54 years of direct or indirect military rule.
The joint session of the two houses of parliament broke into loud applause as the speaker Mann Win Khaing Than announced the result: “I hereby announce the president of Myanmar is Htin Kyaw, as he won the majority of votes.” Immediately, the state-run Myanmar TV’s camera zoomed in from above on a beaming Suu Kyi, sitting in the front row, clapping excitedly, for a live nationwide audience.
The 70-year-old Htin Kyaw, a longtime confidant of Suu Kyi, will take office April 1 but questions remain about his position and power.
Rightfully, the job belonged to Suu Kyi, who has been the face of the pro-democracy movement and who endured decades of house arrest and harassment by military rulers without ever giving up on her non-violent campaign to unseat them. But a constitutional provision barred Suu Kyi from becoming president, and she made it clear that whoever sits in that chair will be her proxy.
Still, Htin Kyaw will be remembered by history as the first civilian president for Myanmar and the head of its first government to be elected in free and fair polls. After the parliament session ended, Suu Kyi did not comment as
“This is a victory for the people of this country. HTIN KYAW MYANMAR’S NEWLY ELECTED PRESIDENT
she exited, leaving the new president to deliver the first reaction.
“This is a victory for the people of this country,” Htin Kyaw said.
The NLD party, and indeed Suu Kyi, came into prominence in 1988 when popular protests started against the military that had ruled in different incarnations since taking power in a 1962 coup. After crushing anti-government riots in which thousands of people were killed, the junta placed Suu Kyi under house arrest in 1989.
It called elections in 1990, which the NLD swept. But the military ignored the results and stayed in power. Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a year later, and it was around this time that Htin Kyaw — then a computer programmer-turned-bureaucrat — became involved in party work.
Htin Kyaw, who had known Suu Kyi since grade school, became her confidant and adviser on foreign relations. As Myanmar lurched from one crisis to another, Suu Kyi was released and re-arrested several times.
The junta finally started loosening its grip on power in 2010, allowing elections that were won by a military-allied party after the NLD boycotted the polls as unfair.