On Sunday she held talks with the parliament speaker Shwe Mann, a key USDP figure who was tipped as a favourite compromise candidate for president until he was ousted as head of his party by military-backed rivals, including Thein Sein in August. While ownership of the democratization process belongs to the government and the people of Myanmar, the worldwide community, including Japan, should continue to support Myanmar’s democratization process so that genuine democracy can take root at an early date.
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Winning the election turned out to be easier than expected for Aung San Suu Kyi and her opposition party, but steering the country will be a test of how she balances her moral vision with political realities.
Those talks could begin this week, although the president and the military commander have said they want to wait first for the Union Election Commission to issue the final results of the November 8 elections.
Suu Kyi, who was released from house arrest shortly after the 2010 elections, won a seat in Parliament, along with many other NLD candidates, in the by-elections that took place in 2012.
Ms Suu Kyi’s polled well in many ethnic minority constituencies.
“It will have a strong impact on everything, including the nationwide ceasefire agreement”, he told Reuters, referring to a deal signed in October between the government and eight ethnic rebel groups.
For all of the euphoria in Yangon since the poll, the negotiations between NLD leaders and the military in the coming months will determine the future political order.
Although many have lived in Myanmar for generations, the Rohingya are not one of the 135 ethnic groups recognised under the country’s citizenship law and are thus entitled to only limited rights.
After forming a new government, she said, the NLD will lay out a “clear and precise” timeline for reforms. The NLD’s manifesto is broad and vague, but the party has pledged to boost Myanmar’s rudimentary schools and hospitals.
“Everyone who will become an important element in the peace process must understand that our country has long suffered poverty and remained undeveloped because it could not resolve political problems by sitting around a table”, U Yan Myo Thein said.
“Frankly, the NLD sweeping such a huge victory isn’t good for the country”, said Sai Nyunt Lwin, the secretary general of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), a party representing Burma’s largest minority group.
The government had refused to include six of them on the grounds of ongoing skirmishes in their respective provinces.
The time period of the present authorities will expire on the finish of March 2016.
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Also, 166 seats are reserved for the military under an arrangement the former junta made before ceding power to the quasi-civilian USDP government in 2011 as part of a gradual transition to democracy after a half-century of military rule.
