Myanmar’s parliament yesterday elected a staunch ally of Burmese State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi as the country’s new president, allowing her to maintain a tight grip on top-level decisionmaking.
Win Myint, 66, had been tipped for the role after former Burmese president Htin Kyaw suddenly stepped down last week, citing the need for rest.
Aung San Suu Kyi is barred by the military-drafted constitution from the presidency because she was married to a foreigner and has two sons who are British citizens.
Photo: EPA-EFE/ HEIN HTET
She has instead served as state counselor since her party’s landslide 2015 election victory, declaring that she would work “above” the president, but her position has no official constitutional role.
That makes it crucial for her to have a compliant friend as president as she manages an often fraught power-sharing arrangement with the still powerful military, which ruled Mynamar for almost half a century.
“I hearby announce that U [honorific] Win Myint, who obtained the majority of votes, is elected as president of the state,” Burmese House of Nationalities Speaker Mann Win Khaing Than said.
Win Myint, who resigned as lower house speaker last week, swept up nearly two-thirds of the votes in a parliament dominated by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).
He beat two opponents, including military-backed Burmese acting president Myint Swe.
The former lawyer remains one of Aung San Suu Kyi’s inner circle — the pair fought side-by-side during the 1988 democracy movement that was violently quashed by the junta and saw Win Myint, alongside many others, being taken political prisoner.
As Myanmar emerged from outright military rule, Win Myint won his seat in 2012 by-elections, the same vote that elevated Aung San Suu Kyi to parliament after a combined 15 years of house arrest.
She is still widely regarded as a heroine within Myanmar, even though her reputation lies shattered globally for failing to speak up on behalf of the country’s Rohingya Muslim community.
An army crackdown has driven almost 700,000 of the persecuted minority out of the country since August last year.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)