Prior to the vote, there had been a common refrain in the global media that these elections might not matter so much.
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The representatives elected characterize seventy five percent of these at every degree of parliament and, underneath the structure, the remaining 25 percent weren’t elected and as an alternative reserved for many who shall be nominated immediately by the army.
Senior ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) member and lower house speaker Shwe Mann-who was among those voted out of the legislature last week-addressed a “lame duck” session of parliament consisting of pre-election lawmakers, which resumed Monday following a recess period during the polls.
The military has already said it will abide by the election result.
And for many Burmese, suspicions linger that the military and its political proxies could use coming weeks to outmanoeuvre the NLD.
Suu Kyi will need to balance the vested interests of business and landowners with those of the poor workers and laborers who back her, while keeping an eye on maintaining badly needed foreign investment in the country. Yet fulfilling the promise falls directly within the purview of the home ministry, which she will not control. Myanmar’s population is made up of 135 ethnic groups.
“Many people in Myanmar will look forward to her making massive changes for the benefit of the people, and fulfilling the hope and promise that her party and her aura represent”, Jane Ferguson, an anthropologist at Australian National University in Canberra, said in an e-mail interview.
The Shan ethnic minority in the north-east says the army has recently stepped up attacks against them. Her status as a national redeemer clearly carries weight among the marginalised. Defence issues have limited civilian oversight.
The term of the current government will expire at the end of March 2016.
Another test: can NLD influence the military? However, it was not allowed to form the government by the military.
Though that could pave the way for an NLD presidency, it won’t be Suu Kyi.
The NLD’s triumph was significant in that the people of Myanmar had spoken freely for the first time in 25 years.
NIU professor Kenton Clymer has authored a newly published book on the history of US diplomatic relations with Myanmar, and it couldn’t be timelier in light of the historic elections unfolding this month in the country.
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On Sunday he listed tasks for the next government to tackle in the country, which still struggles with high poverty rates and poor education, infrastructure and healthcare after years of junta neglect. There appears to be a genuine recognition within the armed forces that the old system was untenable, and that the country must open both its political system and economy, even at the expense of their monopoly on power. The disconnect between the official Indian position on Myanmar and the moralistic concerns of Indian social actors was reflected in Ms Suu Kyi’s remark in 2012, that she was “saddened… that India had drawn away from us during our most hard days”, while insisting she never lost faith in the Indian people.
