Shift to be smooth: Myanmar President

The objective is to resolve the nation’s internal conflicts. “The overwhelming mandate expressed by the people of Myanmar to your leadership in the peaceful elections vividly demonstrates common commitment to democracy”. “It could be five years or 10 years – I couldn’t say”, he told the BBC in July.

Suu Kyi, 70, has taken a conciliatory approach, declining to make a victory speech and seeking talks with President Thein Sein and army chief Min Aung Hlaing, due to go ahead in the coming days. Voicing the hopes of many Burmese in the aftermath of the election, he said he believed Suu Kyi would bring about a transformation of fortunes for the country, where many live in poverty despite an abundance of resources. A few 99 percent of seats have been declared so far and the UEC said yesterday the remainder would be announced by November 20 at the latest. Her party won a similar landslide in 1990 only for the generals to ignore the result and crack down brutally on opponents. But Ms Suu Kyi she has repeatedly said she would lead the country anyway if the NLD won.

Suu Kyi has the power to select a president because of her party’s parliamentary majority, with the candidate chosen in a vote of the new NLD-dominated legislature in February. Both men have given such assurances in public. Mr Thein has launched a national ceasefire agreement initiative, including only eight of almost 20 armed groups, even as the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) launches fresh offensives in Kachin and Shan states.

“Duty will be transferred to the next government systematically, according to the schedule”. At least six other armed groups are active in the country, from a total of 21.

He made the comments at a meeting of political leaders in Yangon.

Similarly, villagers uprooted by mining and infrastructure projects want justice that has been in short supply under the present, military-backed government.

Top Photo – (Sukree Sukplang / Reuters ) A tourist stands between wax figures of Aung San Suu Kyi and Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Bangkok, August 23, 2011.

The NLD’s manifesto is broad and vague, but the party has pledged to improve Myanmar’s rudimentary schools and hospitals. Therefore Su Kyi or anybody appointed by her as president will have no power over the country’s security order.

She knows that she can not be the president under the existing constitution unless it is amended because she had a foreign spouse and two children with foreign nationality. It’s widely expected that she will ask a representative from the military to occupy the post of president for the next two years. Learning from the military’s assault on democracy and brazen decision to reject the internationally recognised general elections in Myanmar 25 years ago, Indonesia should be more proactive than it has been in the past as a friend of Myanmar. “The broader reform process-of re-orientating Myanmar to not just a market economy, but one based on property rights, rule of law, fiscal prudence, monetary stability-will significantly accelerate”.

Politicians remain hopeful that the 70-year-old NLD leader will work to deliver national reconciliation, a goal she has aspired to since the foundation of the NLD in 1988.