With the fighting peacock flag flying outside, Aung San Suu Kyi’s Yangon party headquarters are once again a hive of activity as her Myanmar opposition prepares for its first poll battle in two decades.
The excited crowds that gathered around the democracy icon this week as she registered her candidacy for April 1 by-elections testified to the new energy galvanizing Myanmar’s politics after almost 50 year of military rule.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent much of the past two decades in detention, has already registered to run for a lower-house seat in a rural constituency near Yangon — the latest dramatic change in the country formerly known as Burma.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, the daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero General Aung San, was under house arrest at the time of her party’s 1990 landslide election victory, which was ignored by the ruling generals.
Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party boycotted a 2010 election that swept the army’s allies to power, saying the rules were unfair.
However, with a new-found confidence in the government, she will engage in battle herself for the first time — a challenge she appears to address with humility.
“Am I looking forward to it? I am not sure I think of it as anything other than hard work. But I am not afraid of hard work,” she said at a recent press conference.
Myanmar’s regime has surprised even critics with a series of reformist moves, including dialogue with the opposition, the release of hundreds of political prisoners and peace talks with armed ethnic minority rebels.
The upcoming vote is seen as a major test of the new administration’s democratic ambitions after a series of conciliatory gestures by the army-backed government that replaced the long-ruling junta last year.
To those who — in Myanmar and abroad — have put Aung San Suu Kyi on a pedestal and believe running in this election is beneath her, she defends the will of the people.
“This is a very dangerous attitude to think that any politician is too high up to be involved in the basis of parliamentary democracy. I think we all have to start with at least a sense of humility,” she said.
Aung San Suu Kyi remains hugely popular in Myanmar and there is little doubt she would be elected if the polls are free and fair.
“Of course I will vote for the NLD because we love Daw [Aunt] Suu and General Aung San,” Yangon taxi driver Khin Aye said. “We believe in her. She will be the one who can work for our country and the people.”
One danger raised by observers is that Aung San Suu Kyi’s election could legitimize the regime in a parliament still dominated by the former generals and their allies, with a quarter of seats reserved for unelected military officials.
A total of 48 seats are up for grabs in the April vote, not enough to threaten the resounding majority held by the ruling party, but this does not seem to concern Aung San Suu Kyi, 66.
“The greatest risk is the people in our party fighting to be candidates among themselves,” said the woman widely and warmly known in Myanmar as simply “The Lady.”
The NLD headquarters in central Yangon, a dusty and somewhat shabby building, teems with activists, followers and journalists, while notice boards appeal for new party members.
On the first floor Aung San Suu Kyi holds meetings with the party’s central committee, while on the ground floor young people prepare for the elections.
Women openly sell T-shirts, key chains and calendars with the image of Aung San Suu Kyi and her father, while on Yangon’s streets her face is on the front pages of newspapers and posters for sale — something unthinkable just a year ago.
Khin Myat Thu, 28, joined the NLD eight years ago, following in the footsteps of family members. Her grandfather fought alongside General Aung San and today her own commitment as the party youth spokeswoman is evident.
“Majority or minority [in parliament] is not important. We will stand for the rule of law,” she said.
“Aung San Suu Kyi will try to have some influence on the other MPs so that the democratization process is accepted by everyone,” she added.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s family home on the shore of Inya Lake in Yangon is also constantly busy with a stream of foreign dignitaries.
There is little point in removing the stage set up on her doorstep for TV cameras between such visits, while solar-powered lighting is installed in the garden along with flags bearing the NLD party’s new symbols.
Progress in the NLD’s political platform is matching developments on the house. The official party program is being drafted and the first issue of a booklet informing the faithful about the campaign was released this week.
Phyu Phyu Thin, 40, is running in a Yangon constituency and hopes her experience helping the campaign for the 1990 elections will stand her in good stead.
However, she warned people not to get their hopes too high.
“There will be no promises. The main thing is to lead people to participate in the political process,” she said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing