Yesterday was the first opening session of the first freely elected parliament in Myanmar in the last 5 decades. Majority of its Members of Parliament (MP) and members of the party National League for Democracy (NLD) headed by the legendary Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
The country’s military however continues to retains control of key ministries and also, a quarter of all seats are reserved for the men in uniform.
The current President of Myanmar will step down in March of this year, and one of the parliament’s first job is to choose a new president. Ms Suu Kyi however is ineligible for this post because of a clause in the constitution whcih states that anyone whose children are foreign cannot be president. The NLD leader’s sons are not citizens of Myanmar.
Ms Suu Kyi has not named a possible candidate for the President’s position, but has made it very clear that she would be “above the president”.
Former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament, Lina Chiam, has congratulated the leader of NLD who spent 15 years under house arrest under the former military government of Myanmar.
The wife of veteran opposition stalwart Chiam See Tong, Lina, described Ms Suu Kyi’s and her party’s election as “the awakening of a new political dawn in Myanmar”.
