Tag: Thein Sein

Suu Kyi punts on Rohingya issue – Nikkei Asian Review

YANGON – Prospects for an improvement in the Rohingya’s situation appear bleak after the Myanmar foreign ministry, which is headed by Suu Kyi, recently asked the U.S. to refrain from using the term “Rohingya.” Aung Win, a Rohingya community leader in the Rakhine capital of Sittwe, said that he was not surprised at the foreign ministry’s petition to the U.S. “The foreign minister and Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi understands very well about the Rohingya and what is happening in Rakhine state, but she is silent and not saying anything.” Rather than dealing with the Rohingya issue, some observers believe that Suu Kyi is now focused on changing the country’s constitution to allow her to become president. The new government has also said it wants to prioritize peacemaking with Myanmar’s many ethnic militias as well as promote economic growth. “I think the new government is more concerned right now about maintaining domestic political stability. The NLD probably doesn’t want to have to deal with the voices of the Myanmar’s extreme nationalists as it feels that it already has a lot on its plate,” said Miguel Chanco, Southeast Asia analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit.

NLD looks to answer doubts about its economic chops – Nikkei Asian Review

YANGON — One of the tropes the National League for Democracy will have to address before it takes office next April is the view that the party is light on concrete policies and untested in government. The latter is unavoidable, given that the army did not allow the NLD to govern after it won 80% of seats in the country’s flawed 1990 elections. As for economic policy, the party has a few ideas. “We have a plan, and we presented it in the early stages of the campaign,” said Soe Win, a member of the NLD’s central executive committee, referring to the election manifesto the party published in September. The NLD said it will keep the budget deficit under 5% of gross domestic product, cut the number of ministries and attempt to curb corruption in the bureaucracy, crack down on tax evasion, increase the independence of the central bank and focus on boosting agricultural productivity — a particularly important step given that around 70% of the population lives in the countryside.

As NLD routs governing party, Suu Kyi seeks meeting with president, army – Nikkei Asian Review

YANGON — With the National League for Democracy looking likely to gain enough seats in Myanmar’s Nov. 8 poll to form a government early next year, party leader Aung San Suu Kyi has signaled her intent to meet soon with President Thein Sein, military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and parliamentary Speaker Shwe Mann. Even as vote counting continued on Wednesday, Suu Kyi requested the meeting, clearly in order to discuss the handover of power to a government that she has indicated she will run. “We cannot say exactly when they will meet as the counting process is still going at the UEC [the government’s Union Election Commission],” Zaw Htay, a presidential aide, told the Nikkei Asian Review. “Perhaps it will be next week,” Zaw Htay added. Letters from Suu Kyi to each of the three leaders requesting meetings to discuss “national reconciliation,” dated Nov. 10, were posted on the NLD Facebook page on the morning of Nov. 11. Their publication prompted swift replies — also on Facebook — from Ye Htut, the president’s spokesman, and from Shwe Mann.

Expectations, turnout high in peaceful Myanmar vote – Nikkei Asian Review

YANGON – As polls closed, a thunderstorm hit Yangon — which did little to dampen the spirits of thousands of supporters who had rallied outside the NLD’s headquarters in Bahan township in the hope of glimpsing Suu Kyi. But earlier in the day, under a hot morning sun near the Chinatown district, Nilar Tun, a recent medicine graduate, stood checking voting rules outside her polling station before casting her ballot. “I just want to check up on the rules again, but I saw on the television already,” said Nilar Tun, who would not say who she was voting for. “What I will say is that many people want change,” she noted.

Suu Kyi: “I will be above the president” – Nikkei Asian Review

YANGON — Aung San Suu Kyi is confident that her National League for Democracy can win her country’s election on Sunday, an outcome that would, she hopes, allow her to run a government from behind the scenes despite a constitutional ban on her becoming president. “I will be above the president,” Suu Kyi said. Zaw Htay, an official at the office of President Thein Sein, said Suu Kyi’s plans would, if implemented, contravene the constitution. “The president is the supreme head of the country, of the people,” Zaw Htay told the Nikkei Asian Review.

Myanmar ruling party in u-turn on ouster of speaker – Nikkei Asian Review

KANYUNTKWIN, BAGO, Myanmar — By noon on Wednesday, it appeared that the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party had finally lost patience with Shwe Mann, the parliamentary speaker who was ousted as party chair in August after a long running rivalry with Myanmar President Thein Sein. Htay Oo, the USDP’s acting chair, told the BBC that Shwe Mann, a candidate in Myanmar’s imminent parliamentary elections, had been formally and finally removed from the party two days before. Htay Oo said the decision had been taken because “those who no longer serve the party should no longer be member[s].” Later the same afternoon, however, after various party spokespersons had said anonymously to local media that Shwe Mann had not been expelled, the party issued a statement dismissing his ouster as a “rumor.” “All senior ministers were away for the November 8 election, so no meeting of any kind was held at USDP headquarters,” Kyaw Thura, the party’s head of public relations, told the media in Naypyitaw.

Myanmar backtracks on plan to postpone poll – Nikkei Asian Review

YANGON — Hours after Myanmar’s main opposition party objected to a proposal by the country’s Union Election Commission to postpone a national poll scheduled for Nov. 8, the government changed tack and announced that the vote would go ahead as scheduled. The suggestion to delay the poll was made by election commission chairman Tin Aye at an Oct. 13 meeting with several of Myanmar’s main political parties. Later that day, however, state media carried an announcement that the election will proceed on Nov. 8 as planned. Win Htein, who represented the main opposition National League for Democracy at the meeting, said the election commission’s about-turn was baffling. “I don’t know why they changed their minds,” he told the NAR. “I think they believed that the public would be angry if they changed the date.” The NLD had earlier opposed the proposed delay.

NLD decision to contest vote sets scene for possible power shift – Nikkei Asian Review

NAYPYITAW — Although the opposition National League for Democracy boycotted Myanmar’s last national elections in 2010, it always seemed unlikely it would do likewise in this year’s vote, despite some earlier suggestions to the contrary. In early 2012, the NLD won 43 out of 45 seats in parliamentary by-elections, and is widely seen by most observers as the party likely to win the lion’s share of votes in any free and fair nationwide poll. So, on July 11, just a month after party founder Tin Oo said it was unlikely that the NLD would boycott this election, party leader Aung San Suu Kyi put an end to any doubts by announcing on Saturday that the party would compete on Nov. 8. “Our aim in running is to implement the unfinished democratic reforms,” Suu Kyi said, speaking in Burmese in the capital Naypyitaw on July 11

Jockeying for position – The Edge Review

YANGON – Asked about Shwe Mann’s political eyelash-batting, however, the NLD’s Han Tha Myint stressed it was too early to discuss post-election possibilities, much less commit to backing Shwe Mann. “He has to deal with his colleagues in the party first,” said Han Tha Myint, the NLD’s economics point man and now party spokesman. “We don’t have any official stance on [forming a coalition with him].”

Myanmar presidential race heats up – Nikkei Asian Review

YANGON — In an upbeat tour of China and the U.S. in recent days, Myanmar Parliament Speaker Shwe Mann made every effort to look and sound presidential. Ditching his usual longyi, or sarong, for a sharp Western suit, Shwe Mann told a gathering at a U.S. think tank that “if the USDP nominates me as presidential candidate, I am happy to accept.” Shwe Mann, who also chairs the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, first spoke of his presidential ambitions almost two years ago. Now, six months before national elections, the former No. 3 in Myanmar’s previous military junta is among a handful of contenders jostling for position as the race for the presidency kicks into gear.