Myanmar’s law makers on March 15 (2016) formally elected veteran NLD leader Htin Kyaw as the country’s first civilian president. He will be sworn in as the new head of state on April 1.
A close confidante of National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Kyaw will succeed Thein Sein, a former general. Sein had led the military-backed United Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) government and paved the way for transition of Myanmar to democracy. His party lost the last November elections to NLD.
In normal circumstances, Suu Kyi could have been the President but she has been barred from the post. Under the constitution adopted during the military rule, anyone who has children with foreign citizenship stands disqualified for presidency. Suu Kyi’s two children are British citizens, they have lived in London with their father when she was held under house arrest at Yangon.
Htin Kyaw has known Suu Kyi from childhood and has longstanding family connections with the NLD; this makes him Kyi proxy in the highest office. An economist by training, he is not a well-known public figure. He is familiar with the junta though. He worked in the military government’s foreign economic relations department as deputy director till 1992 when he resigned to assist the NLD supremo.
Now attention has shifted to government formation. It is likely that Suu Kyi will hold key portfolios like foreign affairs. Under the law of the land as it exists today, military will call the shots in respect of defence, border security and the interior ministries. In fact, these ministries are reserved for the junta.
At the outset there was some ray of hope in the NLD circles that Suu Kyi could become the President of the country with the army’s backing. This hope stemmed from the fact that former military dictator Than Shwe had hailed her as “Myanmar’s future leader”, last December.
On her part Suu Kyi also appeared conciliatory and held prolonged negotiations with military chief Min Aung Hlaing. Obviously, the junta would not like the new government to reopen the past when human rights violations took place across the country as a consequence of putting down opposition of any consequence. At one stage it appeared as though there could be a trade-off between the two sides and the army might get a couple of more ministerial berths in return for Kyi entering the Presidential palace.
All these much talked about possibilities ended up as mere speculation. Suu Kyi’s meeting with the commander –in-chief Hlang has failed to break the ice, a senior NLD lawmaker conceded on Mar 9. Put simply, the army will not like to give up its say even as it is prepared to allow the NLD to take over the reins of the country. Observers aver that the direct control of the army over the defence and interior ministries besides border security will enable its intervention if it perceives that the situation demands such an act.
One of the newly elected vice presidents is Myint Swe. Known as hard-liner, he is still subject to US sanctions. As the chief of military intelligence he had ruthlessly put down the Buddhist monks’ saffron protests in 2008.
NLD has bagged the second vice president’s post. But its nominee is Henry Van Thio, an ethnic Chin, who is formerly a Major in the Army. To what extent his background will come in handy for NLD to smoke peace pipe if things go wrong with the Army is difficult to say. What is known is that his selection for the post was to an extent guided by his familiarity with the military’s business enterprises.
How things will shape up is difficult to crystal gaze. The fact is that Myanmar is embarking on a new experiment which has received the endorsement of the people. Both sides- NLD and the military have equal stake in honouring people’s mandate. Flexibility rather than rigidity should be the guiding mantra for success.
As Lindsay Murdoch remarked in Sydney Morning Herald, a majority of the new lawmakers are inexperienced. They are political prisoners –turned –politicians. This raised the bar still higher for The Lady, as the 70-year-old Nobel laureate is known. Because, the buck stops at her door. And the expectations of people are high
-YAMAARAAR