Myanmar moves

Myanmar has begun its civilian transition. On Thursday, Htin Kyan was sworn as Myanmar’s first civilian president. A trusted aide of Aung San Suu Kyi, he has urged patience for both Myanmar and the world. The country has thus taken a step towards ending 56 years of military rule. It took four months between the national elections in November and March for the newly elected parliament to come to a power-sharing agreement with the military junta. Already, instead of moving forward, the ruling National League for Democracy has begun to give anti-democratic signals. It has declared that it wants to appoint party leader Suu Kyi as the president’s boss. Suu Kyi recently courted controversy after shooting down questions from a BBC journalist about the plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority and commenting that she didn’t know she was ‘being interviewed by a Muslim.’

The NLD has refused to take positions that may stir any controversy with the military junta. Suu Kyi remained under house arrest for over 15 years as other pro-democracy activists were arrested and killed in the country. The civilian transition has only just begun with the military having decided to carefully give up some of its control. If it decides to get rid of the NLD, there is little immediate chance of a public movement at the moment. The result is that concerns over whether the country’s human rights record will improve under the new civilian government will remain. Suu Kyi will be the de facto ruler of the country but is currently barred from being the direct president because her sons are foreign citizens. A real democratic transition in Myanmar would require serious constitutional reforms, eliminating the reserved seats in parliament for military men and integrating ethnic minorities as full citizens. It is doubtful that the NLD will push for something so radical in the first transition away from military rule. Nor is it clear that doing so is even on the party’s agenda. One may wish to sympathise with the constraints faced by the NLD, but it is not clear if the party’s own intentions are good enough.