Myanmar house begins new session dominated by Suu Kyi party

It’s a day Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters have been waiting for for more than two decades.

Hundreds of newly elected legislators, a majority of them from Suu Kyi’s party, on Monday began a parliament session that will install Myanmar’s first democratically elected government in more than 50 years.

The outgoing president told parliament on Thursday that the country still has problems, such as an incomplete peace process with ethnic minority rebels, a crumbling infrastructure and stalled economic development.

“Whatever has been done during the past five years is aimed at the restoration of peace and tranquility”, the former military commander said. While under house arrest, she became an worldwide face of the fight for democracy, with U.N. Secretary Ban Ki Moon in 2012 calling her a “global symbol” of progress.

Soon after taking power, Thein Sein set about opening the previously reclusive country to the worldwide community.

For it to be Ms Suu Kyi there would have to be an incredible last minute deal and constitutional change.

The military called an election in 1990, which Suu Kyi’s party won handsomely, only to see the results annulled by the military and many of its leading members harassed and jailed. Both of Suu Kyi’s adult sons are British citizens.

Ms Suu Kyi remained silent as the outgoing military-dominated government approved laws granting immunity to military leaders, some of whom have been accused of gross human rights abuses and who control vast business conglomerates that dominate the country’s economy.

She has vowed to sidestep this hurdle by ruling “above” a proxy president, although she has yet to reveal her choice for the role. However, she is expected to hold power in the party above the president and direct the actions of the person who is elected to the post.

After decades under the military yoke, Myanmar’s people queued in their thousands to cast ballots for Suu Kyi and her party in November, throwing their support behind her simple campaign message of “change”.

Some reservations exist, however, about Suu Kyi’s position on the persecuted minority Rohingya population. Others are languishing in impoverished camps in Myanmar.

“I believe we can all co-operate for our country and people, whether it is outside or inside the parliament”, the pro-democracy leader said in her address to parliament.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), will sit as the head of the country’s government Monday for a new session of parliament.

Unless the article is suspended, those qualified to be president and vice presidents of Myanmar could be people from the NLD, as the election victor, the military – as the real power holder – and ethnic groups, as a key component in state-building.