In a modest dormitory in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, novice Burmese Member of Parliament (MP) Tin Thit recites a poem he has penned called No Retreat, steeling himself to enter Myanmar’s parliament carrying the dreams of a nation left traumatized by army rule.
A poet, editor, activist — and now newly elected MP — he is among hundreds of political newcomers poised to take their seats today in the nation’s most democratic legislature in generations, following the huge landslide win by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) in November last year.
“This is our era,” the newly minted NLD lawmaker said on Saturday as he prepared for a last-ditch round of parliamentary training organized by his party, brushing off concerns about his and his colleagues’ lack of experience.
Photo: AP
“This is our responsibility. We will just do the job we have to do,” he said.
The new parliament marks a momentous political shift for a nation that was held in the choke hold of oppressive junta rule for decades.
Many of the NLD MPs have served prison time in Myanmar’s long struggle for democratic change. They are a diverse bunch, counting singers, lawyers and businessmen among their ranks.
However, few have any experience of the cut and thrust of Myanmar’s complex parliamentary process.
They must show the nation’s 51 million people that they can deliver the “change” that was virtually the sole message of Aung San Suu Kyi’s triumphant election bid.
That is unlikely to be easy.
While the junta handed power to a quasi-civilian reformist government in 2011, the Southeast Asian nation remains blighted by poverty and corruption. Junta-era neglect has left a legacy of ravaged education, healthcare, infrastructure and a creaking bureaucracy.
Ethnic minority divisions have also torn deep fractures across the nation and civil wars continue to ravage border areas, fought by a military that has ensured it is to retain huge political and economic powers under the new government.
“Our region is another world,” said Cing Ngaih Mang, a newly elected MP for a small ethnic minority party from western Chin State, marveling at the grandeur of Myanmar’s junta-built capital.
“The difference in development is like comparing earth and sky,” she said, adding that she had been watching parliamentary TV to brush up on protocol.
Tin Thit never aspired to be a politician, but he managed to topple former Burmese Minister of Defense Wai Lwin in a vote in November last year, winning a lower house seat in the military heartland of Naypyidaw.
About 390 NLD MPs are due to take their seats in the national parliament today, turning the tables on the army-backed party that dominated the legislature alongside a bloc of unelected military MPs for the past five years.
While the NLD-led parliament is likely to be seen as essentially a rubber stamp for Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, complex political manoeuvring awaits in the coming days.
The parliament is to shortly nominate a new president to replace incumbent Burmese President Thein Sein, a former general, in late March.
Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from the position by a military-scripted constitution, because she married and had children with a foreigner.
She has vowed to rule “above” the next leader, a move that is likely to put her at loggerheads with the army, which holds an effective veto on charter change because it retains a quarter of seats in the legislature.
Only about two dozen NLD MPs entering parliament today, including Aung San Suu Kyi, have prior legislative experience, meaning the party has few veterans to show new lawmakers the ropes.
To combat this, the party has been running workshops in recent weeks, while new MPs flocked to Naypyidaw to watch their predecessors in the last days of the previous parliament, which ended on Friday last week.
At a series of squat regimented housing blocks where shabby one-story dorms cost US$4 a day, new MPs were moving in.
“We can endure it. We came here for the country,” said one NLD lawmaker, who asked to remain anonymous, adding that many had “served time in prison” and could get by without luxury.
Tin Thit said the experience was like a reunion, with former cellmates, school friends and other acquaintances gathered together in the junta-built capital.
He served seven years in jail for poems deemed critical of the state.
However, the 49-year-old is also eager to put the past behind him, in a sentiment that reflects the extraordinary scenes of camaraderie in the parliament in recent days, as the army elite sought to hand over power with grace — even throwing a party to mark the occasion.
“We need to move forward,” he said.
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