Parliament’s lowliest house
U Kyaw Min, of the NLD party in Burma, seems anxious to share this less-than-luxurious space with party members.
When Burma’s parliament is in session, lower-house MP Sai Win Khaing lives in a cramped room in the capital, Naypyidaw.
In Burmese, Naypyidaw means “the abode of kings.” But there is nothing regal about this abode. Two small bed frames, one ceiling fan, an air-conditioning unit and one bathroom. A laptop sits on a desk. Wire screens cover the windows.
It looks like a college dorm room. It also kind of looks like a minimum-security prison cell.
“I am living here alone,” said the cheery 48-year-old from the ethnic minority Shan Nationalities Democratic Party, wearing a T-shirt tucked into a traditional longyi and sitting cross-legged on his mattress.
Only a few of the hundreds of lawmakers in Burma’s upper and lower houses are from areas near Naypyidaw, the grandiose capital built from scratch in 2005 by the former military junta.
Commuting isn’t an option so, for the two-and-ahalf months at a time when parliament is session, the out-of-towners need a place to stay.
The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which was thrown out of power in November elections, provides rooms for its MPs at headquarters in the capital. Aung San Suu Kyi, the president of the National League for Democracy, which won the overwhelming majority of seats in the recent vote, lives in her own house.
Everyone else is stuck here, at Si Bin Guest House No. 2, a tranquil but shabby complex of light-green row homes set amid tree-lined streets.
Buses shuttle lawmakers to parliament and fetch them back at the end of the day. Coloured stickers pasted to the front doors are the only way to tell who belongs to which party.
On a recent Saturday, it was so quiet the only sounds were birds chirping and the murmur of a radio. This was a few weeks after the Nov. 8 poll, when Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD won nearly 80 per cent of the vote.
Sai Win Khaing was among those who lost his seat. “I will be a normal civilian after Jan. 31,” he said, referring to the end of the parliamentary term. “I will have no power.”
He was first elected in 2010, and was used to the routine in Naypyidaw. He didn’t say so explicitly, but he sounded like he would miss this place. “When I arrived in Naypyidaw, it was not a good place to live,” he said. “But later, it got better to live here (and) even the natural environment is good.”
The NLD is coming to the “abode of kings” en masse. Before the election, the party had just over 40 seats in the combined upper and lower houses. When they swear in early next year, they will have 390, out of a total of 664. U Kyaw Min, an NLD member of the lower house, seemed anxious about the arrival of so many fellow party lawmakers. Until now, he had the space to himself. Would he have to — gulp — share?
“Now we have our own separate rooms in this dormitory.”
He had a calendar on his wall with a photo of Aung San Suu Kyi. Laundry was strewn about. Stacks of newspapers lay on the bed. I sympathized. Living here, I wouldn’t want a roommate, either.