Many of those jailed were supporters of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the force behind the new government.
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But the constitution also says the military is responsible for safeguarding it, leaving a gray zone as to who actually has the final say over constitutional decisions and creating the potential for conflict. The prevailing 2008 version that includes the provision blocking Suu Kyi from serving as president also contains a more credible article, requiring that the post of the elected president be higher than any other political position.
The democracy that Suu Kyi and her colleagues are building is still not a complete package. Suu Kyi’s two children are British, as was her late husband.
U Htin Kyaw nominated U Myo Thein Gyi as the education minister and U Pe Zin Tun as minister of electric power and energy to replace two of Aung San Suu Kyi’s portfolios, Xinhua reported.
How could she not speak up for the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority in her Buddhist-majority nation and why were Muslim candidates excluded from her party for last year’s elections?
The military has already balked at the NLD’s plans to make Suu Kyi a “state counsellor” with army MPs in parliament last week saying the move bypasses the constitution. The ruling National League for Democracy had intended from the start that the multiple cabinet posts be temporary. She is barred from the presidency by a clause in the junta-drafted charter disqualifying those with foreign close relatives.
The constitution the generals wrote gives the army a quarter of the seats in Parliament, which is enough to block any constitutional change. Congress, which imposed sanctions on the military regime, and President Obama, who pushed the generals toward this partial liberalization, can claim a measure of credit for Htin Kyaw’s inauguration.
Aung San Suu Kyi has had a contentious relationship with the military-backed opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) as well as the powerful military itself, which dominated Myanmar for more than a half-century and kept her under house arrest for 15 years over a 21-year period.
Banned from becoming president by a junta-era constitution, Suu Kyi has cemented control over the country’s first civilian-led government in decades by taking on a string of senior roles in the new administration. Instead, she has tried to assert her leadership through her dominant party and her cabinet portfolios. The military government would remain in power until March 30, 2011 with the inauguration of the new government under then-President Thein Sein. She has said repeatedly she will run the government from behind the scenes.
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What matters for a successful democratic constitution is that the institutions of government function; that the political actors reach compromise on how the state will run; that the voting public finds the whole thing to be legitimate, and that regular elections and free politics keep the government honest.
