Suu Kyi calls for reconciliation in Myanmar
Opposition heads for huge majority in parliament
MYANMAR’S democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi, moving closer to a majority in parliament yesterday, requested a meeting with the president and the powerful military chief to discuss national reconciliation.
Suu Kyi’s opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) had won more than 90 percent of the seats declared so far in the lower house and is well ahead in the upper house and regional assemblies.
If the final results confirm the trend, Suu Kyi’s triumph will sweep out an old guard of former generals that has run Myanmar since the junta handed over power to President Thein Sein’s semi-civilian government in 2011.
The armed forces continue to wield considerable power in Myanmar’s political institutions, enshrined in a constitution drafted before the end of nearly 50 years of rule. It is unclear how Suu Kyi and the generals will work together.
In letters to the commanderin-chief and the president which the NLD released to the media yesterday, Suu Kyi requested meetings within a week to discuss the basis of national reconciliation.
“It is very important for the dignity of the country and to bring peace of mind to the people,” Suu Kyi said in the letter.
Information Minister and presidential spokesman Ye Htut said on his Facebook page: “In response to the letter from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the president this morning replied to her that the meeting would be co-ordinated when the UEC (Union Election Commission) election-related task is finished.”
Relations between Suu Kyi and armed forces chief Min Aung Hlaing are said to be strained.
One of the biggest sources of tension between Suu Kyi and the military is a clause in the constitution barring her from the presidency because her children are foreign nationals.
Few doubt the military inserted the clause to rule her out.
While her letters seek conciliation, Suu Kyi has become increasingly defiant on the presidential clause as the scale of her victory has become apparent.
She has made it clear she will run the country regardless of who the NLD elects as president and described the constitution as “silly”.
“We’ll find one,” she said on Tuesday, referring to her choice of president.
“But that won’t stop me from making all the decisions as the leader of the winning party.”
Results so far gave Suu Kyi’s party 134 of 149 seats declared out of the 330 seats not allocated to the military in the lower house. Under the junta-crafted constitution, a quarter of the seats in both chambers are unelected and reserved for the armed forces.
To form Myanmar’s first democratically elected government since the early 1960s, the NLD needs to win more than two-thirds of seats that were contested in parliament.
The NLD has said it is on course for more than 250 seats in the lower house, well above the 221 needed to control the chamber.
The ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), created by the junta and led by retired soldiers, has conceded defeat in a poll that was a major milestone on Myanmar’s rocky path from dictatorship to democracy.
Suu Kyi also requested a meeting with former USDP chairman Shwe Mann, the lower house Speaker. He lost his seat, but before the election had been seen as a presidential contender.
He antagonised the military while in parliament and built close ties to Suu Kyi, arousing the suspicion of many in his party.
In addition to his bloc of parliament seats, the commander-in-chief nominates the heads of three powerful and big-budget ministries – Interior, Defence and Border Security.
Among other formidable challenges for Suu Kyi is trying to put an end to decades of conflict with armed ethnic groups.
Washington yesterday welcomed the election as a victory for Myanmar’s people, but said it would watch how the democratic process moved forward before lifting the remaining US sanctions.
Final results are due no later than two weeks after Sunday’s poll.