Myanmar’s National League for Democracy party leader Aung San Suu Kyi at a November 5 news conference in Yangon, Myanmar.
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Thein Sein, a former general, became president after the 2010 general elections, which the military government had organized in accordance with its own seven-step roadmap for the transition to democracy.
There is however, somewhat of a view that this might not happen, with the norm, really not being the norm in a state that has generations knowing nothing other than military rule. Therefore Su Kyi or anybody appointed by her as president will have no power over the country’s security order.
In a call with Suu Kyi, Obama “commended her for her tireless efforts and sacrifice over so many years to promote a more inclusive, peaceful and democratic Burma”, the White House said. Thein Sein appointed a number of Myanmar academics as advisors and also established a government-linked think tank, the Myanmar Development Resource Institute, all of which could be tapped by Suu Kyi for advice.
Results have trickled in since the weekend, and on Friday the election commission announced the latest batch of seats that pushed the NLD over the threshold to secure an absolute majority in parliament.
Thein Sein also pledged to “send invitations for the convening of the second parliament” in accordance with “established procedures”, although he did not specify when that would be.
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi receives flowers as she…
The current parliament will remain in place until January, when the new government will take their seats and choose a president, two vice-presidents and a speaker.
The immediate challenge for Suu Kyi will be to find someone for the president’s post. He said it went beyond the separate issue of forming a government once parliament has elected the NLD’s candidate for president, who is still to be named.
“She will meet [with] MPs from lower Myanmar [in Yangon] on November 28 to explain the meaning behind the NLD slogan ‘time for change, ‘” he said, adding that a second meeting with elected lawmakers from the northern half of the country would be held at a later date in Naypyidaw.
In a speech on Sunday in Yangon, he said his semi-civilian government had built the foundations for a “new political culture” that meant differences could be managed.
The willingness of the generals to accept an NLD-led government flows from the junta’s shift since 2011 away from close ties with China and toward Washington. These included three groups fighting in northern Shan State – the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army – and three groups the government said did not have military forces – the Wa National Organisation, the Lahu Democratic Union and the Arakan National Council.
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Now, these groups will be looking to cash in their chips for sticking with her. But the army has long justified its iron rule on the basis of maintaining national unity, which in practice means maintaining the dominance of the ethnic Burman majority.
