Whatever nice things may be said about the Junta government and its climb- down signified by US Secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s friendly handshake with Myanmar’s military President, the situation there is far from normal. Recently, there was a communal flare- up with Buddhists monks and local Muslims caught up in violence. Now Myanmarese pro-democracy leader Aung Suu Kyi has declared that she wishes to be the President of the country. The present Constitution bars her from contesting the election in 2015. She made the announcement at the World Economic Forum which has brought Myanmar in the mainstream after five decades of military rule.
Suu Kyi is well aware that her bid for the top office in Yangon would not be a piece of cake. The military still controls 25% of Parliament and major constitutional amendments are necessary for a 75% support to her. A referendum has to follow in which at least 75% voters will have to back her. The amendment will have a difficult passage. 25% of the MPs are unelected military appointments. If only the civilian Parliamentary seats are all filled up, then only a referendum can be held. Will any of the military favour the political change- over?
Suu Kyi has other disadvantages. Although a revered fighter for freedom and democracy, her links with the Myanmarese people are not very strong. She had her education in India and Oxford, is married to an English professor and her children are British nationals. The Nobel Prize has perhaps distanced her even more from the awed populace. Fancy what ordeal Sonia Gandhi had to face to rise to the top because of our Italian extraction. And she was married to an Indian Prime Minister which is a case in reverse. Besides, Suu Kyi’s rise to the top may not be all that welcome to New Delhi. On her last visit to India, she made no secret of her antipathy to India’s military assistance to the Junta even before it somewhat liberalized the polity. The present proposal for connectivity with a port in Myanmar may prove dicey fo