Talks could open way for Suu Kyi presidency
Negotiations with the military ongoing, officials say.
The democracy movement of the Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is negotiating with Myanmar’s military over the composition of the next government, including a possible deal that would allow her to be president, two senior members of her party said Friday.
The officials said the party had offered senior government posts to the military as part of a deal in which the military would allow Suu Kyi to be president.
The precise details of the negotiations remain murky, and the party members spoke on the condition of anonymity because, in the words of one, “now is a very sensitive time.”
Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, won the election in November by a landslide, ending five decades of military rule here. But the country’s Constitution, which was written by the military, bars her from the presidency because her two children have foreign citizenship, as did her husband, who died in 1999.
The Constitution can only be amended with the consent of the military.
Relations between Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner, and the military are seen as crucial to the success of her government. In addition to the lock on the Constitution, the military retains control of a quarter of the seats in parliament and several key ministries.
Suu Kyi, who has long desired the presidency, has campaigned to amend the Constitution to allow it.
During the election campaign she said she planned to have her party elect a proxy who would answer to her, putting her “above” the president.
But now members of her party say they are hopeful that she can assume the post herself.
The party has a solid majority in the new parliament, which convened for the first time this week. The negotiations have been largely held in the shadows of the week’s parliamentary session.
“The negotiations have been through brokers,” said U Zaw Htay, a member of the government’s transition team who served as a director in the office of departing President Thein Sein.
Among those believed to be brokering the negotiations is Thura Shwe Mann, the former speaker of the lower house of parliament who, despite having been a top official in the repressive dictatorship, has since become an ally of Suu Kyi’s.
Members of Suu Kyi’s party have been outwardly optimistic that she will be able to become president.
Tin Oo, a former general and co-founder of the National League for Democracy, said this week that Suu Kyi would “definitely become president.”
But the military-run Myawaddy newspaper ran a commentary Monday, the day that the new parliament opened, saying that amending the Constitution would be against “the national interest.”