Hundreds of newly-elected Myanmar MPs from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party took lessons in lawmaking from the outgoing Army-dominated Parliament Wednesday, days before taking their seats in the most democrat
Hundreds of newly-elected Myanmar MPs from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party took lessons in lawmaking from the outgoing Army-dominated Parliament Wednesday, days before taking their seats in the most democratic legislature for decades.
A landslide victory for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy in November polls will give the politicians their first taste of power when the new parliament convenes on February 1, a historical turning point for a nation long stifled by military rule.
The new MPs include democracy activists from all walks of life and dozens of former political prisoners, but few have any background in lawmaking. The country was ruled by an oppressive military junta for nearly 50 years, from 1962-2011.
“We are now trying to learn from the old MPs because we have no experience,” said Naing Ngan Kyaw, a new Lower House MP from the central mining town of Mogok.
He was one of around 350 new legislators who attended Parliament sessions in the capital Naypyidaw to watch veteran legislators in action.
“It is in the interest of our country,” he said.
Most MPs currently in Parliament are from the military-affiliated ruling party, part of a quasi-civilian administration that replaced outright junta rule in 2011 and initiated a series of major political and economic reforms.
As a key part of those changes Ms Suu Kyi and some 40 fellow NLD MPs entered Parliament for the first time in 2012, forming a minority Opposition.
But the tables turned dramatically last year, when the party swept nearly 80 per cent of elected seats in the parliament.
