Myanmar's New Democratic Parliament Chooses First Civilian President

By R. Siva Kumar - 15 Mar '16 20:17PM

By the end of the month, Htin Kyaw, 69, an executive committee member of a Suu Kyi-led foundation, will finally be sworn in as President. It marks the end of Burma's military-backed government and is the first milestone of a democratic party led by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, according to washingtonpost.

Htin Kyaw has been one of the top advisers of 'Mother Suu', as Suu Kyi is known. He was by her side when she was under house arrest for 15 years, and then shifted to a charitable foundation in 2012. In 2000, he tried to travel outside Rangoon with her, but was detained by the military junta.

But in the coming weeks, Aung San and Htin Kyaw are still expected to tussle with the Generals. Even as the military held the reins of power, they voted out Suu Kyi's efforts to struggle through a constitutional provision, preventing her from becoming President.

"It's going to be a very, very critical relationship," said Priscilla A. Clapp, senior advisor to the U.S. Institute of Peace, who served as chief of mission and charge d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Burma from 1999 to 2002.

The Constitution guarantees the seats of the military wing of parliament. They have chosen a retired Lieutenant General, Myint Swe, as first vice-president.

However, the State Department spokesman, John Kirby, affirmed the U.S. position on the military reservation in Parliament last week, saying that it is a "structural and systemic flaw in Burma's constitution."

"We want to see the democratic transition move forward," he said. "We have conveyed our concerns about to Burmese leaders, and we're just - we're going to continue to watch this."

Unfortunately, in one of the poorest countries in South Asia, while a peace accord has been signed with the armed ethnic militias, there are still a lot of battles in Burma's border areas, with hundreds of thousands of regugees, and about 140,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees in camps. The country has won part of a political battle, but its economic achievements still seem a long way ahead.