 |
| Aung San Suu Kyi (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Shawn W. Crispin
After the opposition’s big win, observers are wondering how will it address the country’s past.
Post-election horse-trading has begun in earnest in Myanmar, hinting at the contours of a new power-sharing arrangement between elected and military forces.
As National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi holds private meetings with senior military leaders, including an unprecedented session with influential former dictator Senior General Than Shwe, questions are rising about how much the pro-democracy icon must give in order to take power peacefully when the incumbent military-backed government’s term ends in March 2016.
In the wake of the NLD’s resounding November 8 election win, Suu Kyi has held what she has referred to as “reconciliation” talks with top generals, including one-on-one meetings with President Thein Sein, military commander-in-chief Senior General Minh Aung Hlaing and parliament speaker Shwe Mann. Suu Kyi’s symbolic meeting with Than Shwe, the former junta leader who held her under house arrest for 15 out of 21 years and presided over massive human rights abuses, has eased fears that the military may refuse to step down, as they did in annulling the 1990 election result won similarly by the NLD.
According to local reports quoting his grandson, Than Shwe said “everyone” must accept Suu Kyi as the country’s “future leader.” “I will support her earnestly as much as I can if she really works for the development of the country,” Than Shwe said after a two-hour meeting on December 4. Those comments, posted to his grandson’s Facebook page, hint that Than Shwe may order the military’s 25 percent bloc in parliament to repeal a constitutional provision that bars Suu Kyi from the presidency because her sons are foreign nationals. Suu Kyi has repeatedly stated her intention to dodge the provision and rule from “above” the president.
Read the full story at The Diplomat