Aung San Suu Kyi proxy elected president of Burma

AP (ap.org/mail.com); TheGuardian.com; Andrew Win, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

Nobel Peace Laureate, democracy icon, Burmese leader: the Lady Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

Htin Kyaw, left, newly elected president of Burma, walks with National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi, right, at Burma's parliament in Naypyitaw (the dictatorship's capital) March 15, 2016. Parliament elected Htin Kyaw Tuesday, a watershed moment that ushers the longtime opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi into government.

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NAYPYITAW, Burma - Burma's parliament elected Htin Kyaw as the country's new president Tuesday in a watershed moment that ushers the longtime opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi into government after 54 years of direct or indirect military rule.

(March 14, 2016) The joint session of the two houses of parliament broke into thundering applause as the speaker Mann Win Khaing Than announced the result:

 

"I hereby announce the president of Myanmar is Htin Kyaw, as he won the majority of votes." Immediately, the state-run Myanmar TV's camera zoomed in from above on a beaming [The Lady Daw Aung San] Suu Kyi, sitting in the front row, clapping excitedly, for a live nationwide audience.

Theravada Buddhist monks hold up Burmese and American flags (telegraph.co.uk).

 

The 70-year-old Htin Kyaw, a longtime confidant of Suu Kyi, will take office April 1 but questions remain about his position and power. Rightfully, the job belonged to Suu Kyi, who has been the face of the pro-democracy movement and who endured decades of house arrest and harassment by military rulers without ever giving up on her non-violent campaign to unseat them.

 

But a constitutional provision [instituted by the military dictators] barred Suu Kyi from becoming president, and she made it clear that whoever sits in that chair will be her proxy [so she is now effectively Burma's president as she was once elected to be before the military took over]. More

That's nice, very nice. But we and Gen. Than Shwe still rule behind the scenes (AFP).

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