Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party won historic elections in Myanmar, is to take a place in the new cabinet.
Advertisement
Myanmar President elect Htin Kyaw (L) leaves the parliament building after delivering his first addr …
Notable, and top on the list, is Suu Kyi, who was not able to become president because of a constitutional block, even though she led her party to a landslide win in general elections last November.
On Monday, a senior official claimed that Suu Kyi is unlikely to take a formal position in the upcoming government of her National League for Democracy.
On Saturday a TNLA spokesman said its people are wearied by the ongoing clashes and ready to work with the country’s new civilian leader Htin Kyaw, who was elected in a parliamentary vote last week. Suu Kyi herself is constitutionally barred from the presidency, and has effectively said that she will call the shots in the executive branch via her proxy Htin Kyaw.
“Aung San Suu Kyi will entrust the party in parliament in the hands of other NLD elders, as expected, and assume a role within the cabinet”, said Nyantha Maw Lin, managing director at political consultancy Vriens & Partners in Yangon.
Among his other predictions were U Kyi Win, a technocrat, for Resources and Environmental Conservation; U Saw Moe Myint, an NLD MP, for Electricity and Energy; NLD MP U Than Myint for Planning and Budget; Dr Myint Htwe, a former technocrat in the United Nations, for Health; and U Myo Aung of the NLD’s central executive committee for the President’s Office. However U Zaw Myint Maung did confirm that the cabinet would include more than one woman.
Until the cabinet nominations were read out to parliament by the speaker on Tuesday, it had been unclear whether Suu Kyi would join the executive or would chose to guide the government from outside as the leader of the ruling party.
Myanmar was governed by successive military juntas from 1962 and by a military-backed, nominally civilian government from 2011.
Advertisement
Yesterday, it was also reported that Htin Kyaw proposed to pare down the number of ministries from 36 to 21 in an effort to streamline the government structure and make it more efficient. “She will have to do a lot of worldwide relations and overseas trips, and she won’t have the time to exercise control over the government”, he told The Associated Press.
