Aung San Suu Kyi has been nominated to join the cabinet in Myanmar’s incoming government, giving the democracy veteran a formal position in the administration, despite being blocked from the presidency.
Advertisement
The names will be reviewed by the parliament and the speaker of the parliament will ask the legislators on Wednesday to approve the names. If Suu Kyi ends up accepting and holding a cabinet position, she will need to step down from her current post as a member of parliament and cease all NLD-related activities.
Former USDP MP Thura U Aung Ko also made it on the list and as former deputy minister for religion he appeared set to head the newly merged Ministry of Religion and Culture. Until Tuesday, there had been little indication of who the party would select for cabinet positions.
A party spokesman later confirmed Suu Kyi would lead the foreign ministry and hinted that she would also hold other roles, without specifying which ones.
Suu Kyi has said she would serve in a role “above the president”. As leader of the Congress party, she dominated the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh before it fell from power in 2014, but held no ministerial position.
Under the 2008 constitution, the military is guaranteed 25 percent of the parliamentary seats and allowed to control the country’s three key ministries – internal affairs, defense and border security.
“I think Aung San Suu Kyi taking position in the government means that the government can do much better to develop our country”, – Than Aung Soe, NLD lawmaker.
The Nobel Peace Prize-winner’s name was on a list of proposed ministers announced Tuesday by the speaker of parliament.
Aung San Suu Kyi is now the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD).
“The relationship between the military and civilians will become better under Aung San Suu Kyi’s leadership, but there will be even less possibility of amending the 2008 constitution”, Yan Myo Thien said.
He has submittedthe list to Myanmar’s parliament, sitting in Naypyitaw.
The proposal submitted on March 17 was approved by a vote of 611-3 with 21 abstentions, Xinhua news agency reported.
But conflicts continue to rage in several areas between ethnic minority armed groups and the still-powerful national army, which operates beyond the reaches of civilian government, after a ceasefire pact signed previous year failed to include all of the country’s fighters. “If she wants to share the duties she has in other ministries with qualified people, she can assign them”, he told reporters.
She could have done that just by becoming minister in the president’s office, sitting next to her friend and proxy Htin Kyaw and telling him what to do.
Advertisement
One new ministry, which is the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs, is added to among the 21 ministries, indicating that the new government attaches importance to ethnic affairs which are to be separately dealt with to boost national reconciliation. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
