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Myanmar begins new era as Suu Kyi joins Parliament
Aung San Suu Kyi completed her historic journey from political prisoner to Parliamentarian on Wednesday, assuming public office for the first time in a risky new strategy to work alongside Myanmar’s new reform-minded government after her 24-year struggle against military rule.
The session on Wednesday cements a detente between Suu Kyi’s party and the administration of President Thein Sein, which came to power last year after the nation’s long-ruling army junta stepped down. Some analysts see it as a gamble in which the Opposition could end up bestowing legitimacy upon a regime that needs Suu Kyi to end years of isolation from the West and get lingering sanctions lifted.
The 66-year-old democracy leader will have almost no power in the Assembly, but she’ll nevertheless have an official voice in the legislative branch and the chance to challenge public policy from inside the halls of power for the first time.
Suu Kyi’s parliamentary debut comes after her National League for Democracy party lost its first major political battle since this Southeast Asian nation’s April 1 by-election — a bid to change the lawmakers’ oath.
The NLD had refused to take its seats in the assembly last week because they opposed wording in the oath that obliges legislators to “safeguard” the constitution. The party, which has vowed to amend the document because it enshrines military power, wanted the phrasing changed to “respect.”
Their failure to push through even that small change, though, underscores the immense challenges ahead in a nation still dominated by the military. On Wednesday, Suu Kyi and several dozen of her party brethren chose to compromise for now - jointly reciting the oath in the capital, Naypyitaw, as the ruling party and the army looked on.
Mobbed by reporters after the ceremony, Suu Kyi said she would not give up the struggle she has waged since 1988.
“We have to now work within the Parliament as well as outside the Parliament as we have been doing” all along,
she said. The legislature itself was installed after a 2010 vote that the NLD boycotted and the international community decried as a sham.
Aung San Suu Kyi completed her historic journey from political prisoner to Parliamentarian on Wednesday, assuming public office for the first time in a risky new strategy to work alongside Myanmar’s new reform-minded government after her 24-year struggle against military rule.
The session on Wednesday cements a detente between Suu Kyi’s party and the administration of President Thein Sein, which came to power last year after the nation’s long-ruling army junta stepped down. Some analysts see it as a gamble in which the Opposition could end up bestowing legitimacy upon a regime that needs Suu Kyi to end years of isolation from the West and get lingering sanctions lifted.
The 66-year-old democracy leader will have almost no power in the Assembly, but she’ll nevertheless have an official voice in the legislative branch and the chance to challenge public policy from inside the halls of power for the first time.
Suu Kyi’s parliamentary debut comes after her National League for Democracy party lost its first major political battle since this Southeast Asian nation’s April 1 by-election — a bid to change the lawmakers’ oath.
The NLD had refused to take its seats in the assembly last week because they opposed wording in the oath that obliges legislators to “safeguard” the constitution. The party, which has vowed to amend the document because it enshrines military power, wanted the phrasing changed to “respect.”
Their failure to push through even that small change, though, underscores the immense challenges ahead in a nation still dominated by the military. On Wednesday, Suu Kyi and several dozen of her party brethren chose to compromise for now - jointly reciting the oath in the capital, Naypyitaw, as the ruling party and the army looked on.
Mobbed by reporters after the ceremony, Suu Kyi said she would not give up the struggle she has waged since 1988.
“We have to now work within the Parliament as well as outside the Parliament as we have been doing” all along,
she said. The legislature itself was installed after a 2010 vote that the NLD boycotted and the international community decried as a sham.
