Aung San Suu Kyi Triumphant Return

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Long admired for her steely defiance, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi now also enjoys a position of great political strength. In April her party, the National League for Democracy, nearly swept special elections in districts that represented a broad cross-section of Myanmar’s diverse population. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi won a seat in Parliament for the first time.

In a striking measure of personal popularity, her party captured all the seats contested in Naypyidaw, the new capital city built by the former military junta and populated largely by government employees. After more than 15 years under house arrest, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is now riding high and following a trajectory that could threaten the dominance of the military-backed party when elections are held in 2015.

To her compatriots, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is a mother figure and a repository for the nearly impossible litany of aspirations for Myanmar’s 55 million people, many of them desperately poor.

“She is their hope and their light,” said Mr. Zarganar.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/world/asia/13iht-suukyi13.html

I've been a long term fan of her.
 
Suu Kyi wins by a landslide...

Myanmar ruling party concedes poll defeat as Suu Kyi heads for landslide
9 Nov.`15 - Myanmar's ruling party conceded defeat in the country's general election on Monday, as the opposition led by democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi appeared on course for a landslide victory that would ensure it can form the next government.
"We lost," Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) acting chairman Htay Oo told Reuters in an interview a day after the Southeast Asian country's first free nationwide election in a quarter of a century. The election commission later began announcing constituency-by-constituency results from Sunday's poll. All of the first 12 announced were won by Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy (NLD).

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Myanmar's National League for Democracy party leader Aung San Suu Kyi looks at supporters after speaking about the general elections in Yangon, Myanmar​

The NLD said its own tally of results from polling stations around the country showed it on track to win more than 70 percent of the seats being contested in parliament, more than the two-thirds it needs to form Myanmar's first democratically elected government since the early 1960s. "They must accept the results, even though they don't want to," NLD spokesman Win Htein told Reuters, adding that in the highly populated central region the Nobel peace laureate's party looked set to win more than 90 percent of seats.

Earlier a smiling Suu Kyi appeared on the balcony of the NLD's headquarters in Yangon and in a brief address urged supporters to be patient and wait for the official results.


DEMOCRATIC JOURNEY

The election was a landmark in the country's unsteady journey to democracy from the military dictatorship that made it a pariah state for so long. It is also a moment that Suu Kyi will relish after spending years under house arrest.

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Could be a real turning point for the country, and the region.
 
possum got no comment on it either...

Mum's the word as Myanmar's Suu Kyi starts military rapprochement
3 Dec.`15 - Myanmar's opposition was tight-lipped on Thursday about talks between leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the country's top general, citing the need for goodwill with its future government partners to ensure a smooth path to office.
Nobel laureate Suu Kyi met on Wednesday with Min Aung Hlaing, the head of a military she must work with in power-sharing executive, despite her party securing an overwhelming public mandate in a Nov. 8 general election. Her National League for Democracy (NLD) won more than four-fifths of the vote, but a constitution written by the military before it ceded power in 2011 guarantees its nominees get three key cabinet posts and a vice-president position. The talks were hugely symbolic with the figurehead of a once persecuted pro-democracy movement discussing Myanmar's future with the chief of a military that used an iron fist to monopolise power for five decades. "We must be, for the time being, tight lipped," senior NLD member Win Htein told Reuters, when asked what they discussed. "We have been struggling for more than 27 years to reach this stage. We are asking repeatedly, repeatedly to have a dialogue. What happened yesterday, our wish was fulfilled."

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National League for Democracy (NLD) party leader Aung San Suu Kyi shakes hands with Myanmar's Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing before their meeting in Naypyitaw​

Despite the NLD's sweeping win, public doubts linger about the military's government role given its record of political intervention and lucrative network of businesses that could be impacted by future policy shifts. Complicating that tricky equation is Suu Kyi's intent to change articles of a constitution that not only grants the military a veto on amending it, but excludes her from becoming president due to her sons' foreign citizenship. Suu Kyi's ties with the generals have warmed since she joined parliament in 2012, but were tested when the NLD gathered 5 million signatures in a petition urging lawmakers to vote to remove the military's legislative veto. That failed, and she criticized Min Aung Hlaing for interfering in democracy.

Their hour-long talks appeared to be cordial, however, described by a smiling Min Aung Hlaing as "very nice". Win Htein said the NLD would not rock the boat and had been ordered to keep strategy a secret. Khin Zaw Win of the Tampadipa Institute think-tank said the gag order was understandable given the NLD's inexperience, but Suu Kyi herself should tread carefully having stirred controversy by announcing a plan to control a nominee president. "Their leader found it prudent to tell them to keep quiet," he said. "At the same time ... she is putting the brakes on the MPs but is herself going full swing."

Mum's the word as Myanmar's Suu Kyi starts military rapprochement
 
Former junta leader resigned to Suu Kyi being future leader of Myanmar...

Myanmar’s ex-dictator says Suu Kyi is ‘future leader’
6 Dec.`15 - Myanmar’s feared former junta leader Than Shwe has endorsed his one-time nemesis Aung San Suu Kyi as a “future leader” of the country, according to his grandson.
Than Shwe, a postal clerk turned general who ran the country with an iron fist for nearly two decades, met with democracy champion Suu Kyi on Friday. Her party is preparing for power after November’s massive election win. The talks mark a dramatic turnaround in fortune for Suu Kyi, who was kept under house arrest for 15 years by the 82-year-old retired general for leading the democracy movement against his army. “Everyone has to accept the truth that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will be the future leader of Myanmar after winning the elections,” Than Shwe was quoted as saying on a Facebook post late on Saturday by his grandson, Nay Shwe Thway Aung. Daw is a term of respect. “I will support her earnestly as much as I can if she really works for the development of the country,” he added, according to the post.

The former strongman’s grandson said he acted as an intermediary for the talks. Win Myint, a spokesman for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, confirmed the Friday meeting, adding it was the first time the pair had met since 2003. Suu Kyi, 70, is barred from the presidency by an army-scripted constitution, but has said she will govern from “above the president” when her party take their seats in the new year. Than Shwe ruled Myanmar from 1992 to 2011, when he handed power over to a military-backed semi-civilian government.

It is unclear if his reported comments offer support for Suu Kyi’s bid to change the charter, including the clause that bars her from the nation’s top office because her sons have foreign passports. The NLD scooped up nearly 80 per cent of contested seats in last month’s breakthrough election, a massive mandate to govern after nearly half a century of military rule.

Myanmar’s ex-dictator says Suu Kyi is ‘future leader’ - Newspaper - DAWN.COM
 
Suu Kyi likely to take a background role...

Suu Kyi unlikely to take formal role
Tue, Mar 22, 2016 - PRESIDENT’S PLEDGE: In his first public speech since being elected president, Htin Kyaw promised job security, despite the number of ministries being cut by one-third
Myanmar democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi is unlikely to take a formal position in the incoming government of her National League for Democracy (NLD) and is to control the administration through her position as party leader, a senior official said. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate led the NLD to a landslide win in a historic election in November last year, but a constitution drafted by the former junta bars her from the presidency because her two sons are British citizens, as was her late husband. “Taking positions is not that important any more... In the United States there are many famous lawmakers in the parliament who are very influential, but they do not take any position in the Cabinet,” NLD spokesman Zaw Myint Maung said on Sunday. “It is the same here. She will lead the party, so she will lead the government formed by that party,” Zaw Myint Maung said in the most detailed remarks from the NLD so far on how Aung San Suu Kyi plans to wield power.

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Members of parliament attend a union parliament session in Naypyidaw yesterday.​

Other top-level NLD politicians, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s confidant, Win Htein, have likened her role to that of Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. As leader of India’s Congress party, she dominated the government of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh before it fell from power in 2014, but held no ministerial position. NLD leaders have derided the constitution as “ridiculous,” and Aung San Suu Kyi has pledged to run the nation through a proxy president. The NLD-dominated parliament last week elected Htin Kyaw — a close friend and confidant of Aung San Suu Kyi — for that role, making him the first head of state since the 1960s who is not a serving or recently retired senior military officer. In the run-up to the November poll last year, Aung San Suu Kyi had made clear she intended to lead the government regardless of whether she was president, but said the Sonia Gandhi comparison was “not quite” accurate. She has not elaborated since.

Htin Kyaw yesterday made his first public speech since being elected, pledging job security for public servants even as the parliament cut the number of ministries by about one-third to 21. He said the reforms would save Myanmar more than US$4.1 million and those savings would be spent on healthcare, education and rural development. “There is no reason for causing unemployment if the government employees take jobs in accordance with existing laws, rules and regulations,” he said, without elaborating. Most military members of parliament, who hold one-quarter of the seats in the parliament, also voted in favor of the changes, results showed. “I think the military also understands that they [some ministries] are not necessary. Their collaboration is an improvement in the parliament,” lower house NLD lawmaker Aung Hlaing Win said.

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Suu Kyi to be in foreign ministers office...

Myanmar's Suu Kyi to run foreign ministry
Tue, 22 Mar 2016 - Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy (NLD) party swept to victory in Myanmar's election, is given a place in the new cabinet.
Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party won historic elections in Myanmar, is to take a place in the new cabinet. Ms Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency herself and had been widely expected not to take a ministry. But her name was on a list of 18 submitted to parliament by President-elect Htin Kyaw. The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Yangon says she will head up foreign affairs, energy, education and be minister in the president's office. There are no other women appointed to the cabinet, he adds. Myanmar's constitution, drafted by the outgoing military rulers, prevents Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president because her two sons have British passports. Despite weeks of negotiation, the NLD was unable to persuade the military to remove or suspend the clause.

Analysis: Jonah Fisher, BBC News, Yangon

Aung San Suu Kyi had already made it clear that whatever her title she was going to run the new government. She could have done that just by becoming minister in the president's office, sitting next to her friend and proxy Htin Kyaw and telling him what to do. But that clearly wasn't enough. Ms Suu Kyi has had four and a half months to reflect on who should steer one of her biggest priorities, education reform.

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She's also had time to consider who should oversee the vital energy portfolio, and who should represent a resurgent Myanmar, also known as Burma, at summits abroad. And after all that time the answer was staring back from the mirror. Aung San Suu Kyi decided that there could be no-one else, and that she would have to directly run three of the most time-consuming ministries. Only time will tell how that works in practice. But given there are only five working days in a week these ministries could well be guided by someone who shows up for just one day in five.

Even with the most efficient support team around you, it's hardly a platform to deliver much-needed ambitious change. Fifteen of the names on the ministerial list were chosen by Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate and former political prisoner, and three by the commander-in-chief of the army. Parliament is expected to vote later in the week to confirm the posts. The NLD has a huge majority in both houses of parliament, although the military automatically occupies 25% of seats. If she does become foreign minister, under the complex political structure Ms Suu Kyi will have to stand down as an MP and refrain from all NLD activities.

Who is Htin Kyaw?
 
Fate of political prisoners in Myanmar...

Amnesty urges Suu Kyi to free political prisoners
Fri, Mar 25, 2016 - HISTORIC CHANGE: The rights group urged Myanmar’s incoming government to end the cycle of repression by releasing hundreds of people in prison or detention
Amnesty International yesterday urged Aung San Suu Kyi and her party’s new government to release all political prisoners when they take office next week, saying it is a historic opportunity for Myanmar to break away from the repression of the former junta rule. “Myanmar’s legal framework reads like a textbook of repression, and authorities have in recent years increasingly used it to silence dissent,” Amnesty International Southeast Asia director Champa Patel told reporters. Serious questions remain unanswered about the new government’s power to improve human rights given that the constitution keeps several key institutions under the military’s control, including the ministries of home affairs — which oversees the police — defense and border affairs.

Amnesty’s report, based on interviews with human rights defenders, activists, lawyers, and prisoners of conscience and their families, documents the widespread crackdown on political opponents in the past two years. It said the government has relied on draconian laws and other intimidating tactics to silence dissent. Aung San Suu Kyi led her National League for Democracy party to a historic win in the Nov. 8 elections, and is to replace a nominally civilian, military-backed government that has been in power since 2011. Before that, Myanmar was ruled by the military since 1962. During that time, the junta kept Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for several years, and jailed hundreds of her supporters and other critics. While the government has released more than 1,100 detainees over the years, some remain in jails.

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National League for Democracy Legislator Khin San Hlaing, center, arrives ahead of a regular session of the Union Parliament in Naypyitaw yesterday.​

Amnesty says it knows of almost 100 political prisoners still behind bars, while hundreds of other activists are in detention or waiting for their trials to end. There was no immediate comment, either from the outgoing government or Aung San Suu Kyi’s party. Amnesty called on the new government to immediately release all prisoners of conscience, set up a panel to review all cases and ensure no peaceful activists are imprisoned, and to amend or repeal all laws used to crack down on human rights. The NLD’s willingness to free prisoners of conscience is not in doubt, but it might not be able to do so: The Corrections Department is under the military-controlled Ministry of Home Affairs.

Even after “we have the new government and parliament, they will not have the full authority to manage the country,” Bo Kyi of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said. “The constitution says the commander-in-chief is the most powerful person in the country.” The laws themselves have also been applied in ways that add to their severity against dissenters and activists. In one such case, Htin Kyaw is serving 13 years and 10 months for distributing leaflets criticizing the government. He was charged with the same offense separately in all 11 townships where he handed out the leaflets. “It would have been really graceful if [outgoing Burmese] President Thein Sein had released all the political prisoners before the end of his term,” said Robert San Aung, an advocate for political activists on trial.

Amnesty urges Suu Kyi to free political prisoners - Taipei Times
 
Could you fucking say something once in a while instead of copying and pasting exclusively?
 
Suu Kyi victim of journalistic ambush...

Suu Kyi ‘angry at being interviewed by Muslim’: writer
Sun, Mar 27, 2016 - ‘ETHNIC CLEANSING’: A new book said that Aung San Suu Kyi complained about a BBC interview in 2013 over the plight of the Rohingya minority
Burmese democracy veteran Aung San Suu Kyi angrily complained about being interviewed by a Muslim BBC presenter who pressed her about violence against Rohingya Muslims, a biographer said on Friday. “No one told me I was going to be interviewed by a Muslim,” the Nobel laureate reportedly said off air after a tense exchange with British-Pakistani news presenter Mishal Husain broadcast in October 2013. The claim was made by Peter Popham, a journalist with the Independent newspaper and author of newly published book The Lady and The Generals — Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s Struggle for Freedom.

In the BBC interview, veteran journalist Husain had pressed Aung San Suu Kyi about the plight of the Rohingya minority, who have been hardest hit by deadly bouts of communal violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Aung San Suu Kyi insisted the violence was “not ethnic cleansing,” saying: “Muslims have been targeted, but also Buddhists have been subject to violence. There’s fear on both sides.” Popham wrote about the outburst in an article for the Independent published online on Friday, and said it was relayed to him by a “reliable” source.

A BBC spokeswoman contacted by Agence France-Presse declined to comment. Aung San Suu Kyi has faced international criticism for not taking a stronger stance on the Rohingya’s plight, and for failing to field any Muslim candidates in November’s polls. She is to be foreign minister in Myanmar’s first civilian government for decades, her party said on Tuesday, giving the democracy champion a formal post despite being blocked from the presidency.

Suu Kyi ‘angry at being interviewed by Muslim’: writer - Taipei Times
 

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