Myanmar Military Resists Suu Kyi's Bid for Greater Power
April 04 2016 - 1:10PM
Dow Jones News
YANGON—Myanmar's military is opposing the ruling party's attempt
to create a top new role in government for its leader Aung San Suu
Kyi, setting up a potential clash with the country's powerful
generals.
Ms. Suu Kyi is constitutionally barred from becoming president
but has vowed to run the government through a trusted confidant
after her party's election victory over the military last year.
A bill that lawmakers appear set to pass this week would give
Ms. Suu Kyi a more formal leadership position akin to a prime
ministerial role. On Monday, she made room to take the new role by
yielding two ministerial positions while retaining two others,
including foreign affairs.
The bill has set up the first open test between Ms. Suu Kyi's
parliamentary majority and the military-aligned bloc. If more than
10% of lawmakers disagree on the bill's constitutionality it goes
to a separate tribunal. That tribunal, handpicked by Ms. Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy, has legal jurisdiction over
constitutional decisions.
But the constitution also says the military is responsible for
safeguarding it, leaving a gray zone as to who actually has the
final say over constitutional decisions and creating the potential
for conflict.
The bill passed the upper house of parliament on Friday with 137
votes for, 70 against and 2 abstentions. The lower house is
expected to pass it with similar margins this week.
The military, whose quarter of parliamentary seats allows it to
block constitutional changes, calls the move illegal.
"Only if the bill is in line with the constitution, then we will
support it," Maung Maung, a military lawmaker, said Monday in
Parliament. Hla Win Aung, another military lawmaker, objected to
Ms. Suu Kyi's being directly named in the bill, which he said was
"completely unprecedented" and "not in line with the law."
The latest jousting began when the government, after being sworn
in last week, introduced a plan for Ms. Suu Kyi to assume a new
title of "state counselor" to advise the state "in the citizens'
interest." The role, in which she would have her own budget, would
help ensure that Myanmar flourishes as a multiparty democracy, the
bill says.
It is the only way to ensure that Ms. Suu Kyi can overcome the
constitutional prohibition and "carry out all the appropriate
activities she needs to do in order to lead," said Nyan Win, a
party spokesman.
The military has opposed her previous attempts to amend the
constitution—which bars citizens like herself with close foreign
relatives from assuming the presidency. Instead, she has tried to
assert her leadership through her dominant party and her cabinet
portfolios. The presidency is the highest power in the land and
obvious attempts by Ms. Suu Kyi to control it risk being deemed
illegal.
The continued focus on Ms. Suu Kyi's title and role could be
counterproductive to establishing cordial ties with the
military.
"One would think the NLD would get down to the business of
running the government first, and try at some later stage only once
trust has been built with the armed forces, to revise the rules of
the game," said Romain Caillaud, a senior director at FTI
Consulting who specializes in Myanmar.
The military warns that it can complicate the NLD's efforts to
govern, given its control over the ministries of defense, border
affairs and home affairs and its role in negotiating peace with
ethnic rebel groups.
"What we see is a government forming without any checks and
balances or transparency in decision-making and we must point this
out and raise all the concerns," said a former general who is close
to the military leadership. The military is "collecting all these
issues together" and will decide on responses, said the former
general.
Write to Shibani Mahtani at shibani.mahtani@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 04, 2016 12:55 ET (16:55 GMT)
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