UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday praised Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for backing down over a boycott of parliament, which had threatened to stall the fragile reform process.
After his first ever talks with the Nobel laureate, Ban hailed Aung San Suu Kyi as a “real leader” who had shown “flexibility” in climbing down over a refusal to take a parliamentary oath, therein ending a political impasse.
In a rare retreat, Aung San Suu Kyi announced on Monday that her National League for Democracy (NLD) party would take its seats in parliament — dominated by the military and its political allies — and pledge to “safeguard” the army-created Constitution.
“I know that it must have been a very difficult decision,” Ban said.
“But a real leader demonstrates flexibility for the greater cause of the people. This is what she has done yesterday and I really admire and respect her decision,” he said.
“I am sure she’ll play a very constructive and active role as a parliamentarian for the betterment and well-being of this great country,” he added.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who won a parliamentary seat in historic April 1 by-elections, is expected to take the oath today, NLD sources said.
Appearing alongside Ban after their near hour-long talks at her lakeside villa in Yangon, Aung San Suu Kyi said she was willing to compromise for the sake of reform.
“We have always believed in flexibility, in the political process ... that is the only way in which we can achieve our goal without violence,” she said.
The UN chief, who on Monday became the first visiting foreigner to address Myanmar’s legislature, also lauded the reformist efforts of Myanmar President Thein Sein and pledged to support the government through its “irreversible” transition to democracy.
He added that meetings with Thein Sein and the NLD leader had left him “convinced that they will continue to make progress.”
Yesterday’s face-to-face talks were the first between Aung San Suu Kyi and Ban, who left frustrated after a previous visit in 2009, when the generals who ruled the nation for decades refused to allow him to see the veteran activist while in detention.
The opposition leader had dropped her boycott of parliament saying her party did not want to cause “a political problem or tension,” ending the first rift with the government since the by-elections.
“Our voters voted for us because they want to see us in parliament,” she said.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the