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| Aung Sang Suu Kyi (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Allison Lim and Michael Kugelman
For many in Myanmar, criticisms of the recent elections are immaterial and the reality on the ground is much different.
Myanmar’s November election—a landslide victory for the National League for Democracy (NLD) – was a procedural success. Turnout was high, the voting process went smoothly, and there was little electoral violence.
These are impressive results for a nation ruled under military dictatorship for half a century, until the country began introducing modest democratic reforms over the last few years.
The November 8 election, however, has elicited a fair amount of criticism from the international community. And it’s easy to understand why.
The Rohingya, a deeply marginalized Muslim community doubly cursed as an ethnic and religious minority, were completely banned from both running and voting in the election. Many other groups were banned as well. Additionally, for all the talk of democratization in Myanmar, the military—much like in another fragile democracy, Pakistan—continues to wield power behind the scenes. The Constitution of Myanmar, written by the military junta, sets aside a quarter of Myanmar’s national and state assemblies for military-appointed representatives.
In a statement issued immediately after the election, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry declared that “there remain important structural and systemic impediments to the realization of full democratic and civilian government” in Myanmar.
Other critiques were far less diplomatic. “Long lines of voters on November 8 won’t make these fundamentally flawed elections free and fair,” said Brad Adams, the Asia director for Human Rights Watch, several days before the poll.
All this said, for many in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city and economic hub, the reality is much simpler: The election worked, and the winner—Aung Sang Suu Kyi, whose NLD garnered three quarters of the vote—is well-positioned to shepherd the nation through an exciting, though uncertain, era of change.
Read the full story at The Diplomat