Myanmar Moves to Consolidate Democracy

Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian
 

South Asia’s countries have had their fair share of women leaders: Indira Gandhi in India, Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, Khalida Zia and Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh, and both Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in Sri Lanka. 

Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar can now be added to the list, though she is at the moment only a de facto ruler. 

She is the country’s state counselor, a position newly created for her by her political allies that effectively makes her the head of the government. The country’s current constitution bars her from the presidency because her children are British citizens. 

The new president, Htin Kyaw, is a close ally she picked for the job.

Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero General Aung San, was for decades the symbol of her country’s desire for democracy while it chafed under military dictatorship. The recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, she was under house arrest for 15 years. 

However, facing international pressure, the military began to loosen its hold on the country and finally agreed to allow free elections last year.

As a result, last November Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won a majority in both houses of parliament, giving the party control over both the legislative and executive branches of government.

The NLD captured 77.1 per cent of the vote and won a combined total of 390 seats, while the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party took just 41.

While there are 664 seats in the two houses of Parliament, the military appoints 166 of them and thus retains some power. They also retain the ministries of defence, home affairs and border affairs.

Though she remains barred from the office of the presidency, “the president will be told exactly what he can do,” she told a television interviewer. “I make all the decisions because I am the leader of the winning party.”

The first freely elected parliament after half a century of military rule opened on Feb. 1, a symbolic but critical milestone in the country’s fragile transition to democracy.

At least 110 of the NLD’s 390 members in the new parliament are, like Suu Kyi, former political prisoners. She announced that she would seek to free some 500 political prisoners, including students, most of whom have not faced trial.

Suu Kyi has said that she hopes to begin the process of changing the constitution, hoping to make her eligible to become president and strip the military of its political powers. The current constitution, drafted in 2008, gives the military a veto over proposed amendments.

Myanmar is now opening up to the world, and Ottawa is establishing closer relations with the country. Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion visited earlier this month and met with Suu Kyi.

Dion congratulated Myanmar on installing its first civilian government in decades and on its transition from military rule to democracy.