A deepening rift has opened between Myanmar’s powerful military and Aung San Suu Kyi, sources say, threatening the democracy leader’s pr-ospects for forming a successful government even as Parliament
A deepening rift has opened between Myanmar’s powerful military and Aung San Suu Kyi, sources say, threatening the democracy leader’s pr-ospects for forming a successful government even as Parliament prepares to nominate presidential candidates on Thursday.
With the date fast approaching for Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy to take power, efforts to portray the party and its former foes as working cordially together towards a smooth transfer of pow-er have faltered, according to politicians and officials familiar with the situation. “She believed that she would be able to work with the military, but after the last meeting with the commander-in-chief, she realised that she cannot negotiate with them,” said a senior NLD Upper House legislator briefed on the talks. “It’s quite clear that she has moved on from waiting for the military to collaborate.”
Talks between the NLD and the military began soon after Mr Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide victory in a historic election on November 8. But she has become frustrated with the intransigence of the military on issues ranging from a constitutional amendment that would allow her to become President to the location of the handover ceremony before the start of the new government on April 1, say sources in her camp.
The military has stressed its belief that it has a vital role to play in politics until the transition to democracy is secure, and is worried that changing the Constitution quickly could set a dangerous precedent.
In practical terms, the new President will become known on Thursday, when the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament and the military bloc will nominate their presidential candidates. But until those nominations, virtually no one outside of Ms Suu Kyi’s inner circle knows who will be the country's next leader.
Meanwhile, Ms Suu Kyi’s incoming government is considering a rethink of a controversial Chinese-bac-ked dam in Myanmar and looking for ways to end a military conglomerate’s “privileges”, according to her party’s economic advisor.
The new government faces a raft of economic challenges, not least the continued financial clout of Myanmar’s military, while needing to manage delicate relations with China, its biggest trading partner.
Critics of the former junta long argued that Myanmar’s military elite grew wealthy off a cosy relationship with Beijing that granted the giant northern neighbour lucrative concessions with little trickle down benefit.
Hantha Myint, the head of the NLD’s economics committee, said a pot-ential redesign of the multi-billion dollar Myit-sone hydropower project in northern Kachin State was on the cards — comments likely to reverberate in Beijing.
