New era dawns as Myanmar parliament holds historic session

Myanmar’s newly elected politicians, most of them from pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, have taken their seats in parliament for the first time. The session on Monday marked a historic turnaround for the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which was suppressed by the country’s army for years. The party won 80 per cent of the elected seats in general elections in November, qualifying it to form a government and end nearly 50 years of military rule. The south-east Asian nation started moving away from dictatorship toward democracy in 2011, when the military rulers agreed to hand over power to a nominally civilian government headed by President Thein Sein, a general turned reformist.

We don’t know exactly when the presidential election will happen. We cannot tell you anything about who will be nominated as the presidential candidates as well.

Zayar Thaw, an NLD legislator

Despite its landslide victory, the NLD in practice will have to share power with the military, for which the constitution reserves 25 percent of the seats in parliament. Suu Kyi has met senior military leaders to try to ensure a smooth change of government, and they have vowed not to interfere. The new government will also have to contend with various ethnic rebellions in several parts of the country. The military-backed government signed a peace pact with more than dozen smaller ethnic armies before the elections but major groups have stayed away, and fighting continues in many states.

I hope this will be a good opportunity for us to speak out for the ethnic people and demand indigenous rights.

Lama Naw Aung, from the Kachin State Democracy Party