[The results also underscore the gulf between the West, which has fallen out of love with the former democracy campaigner over her defense of the military against genocide charges, and Myanmar’s people, who see Suu Kyi as a deity-like figure.]
By Shibani
Mahtani and Cape Diamond
The
challengers, a military-linked political party and numerous ethnic-based
groups, were largely obliterated, leaving Suu Kyi’s party with more than
80 percent of available parliamentary seats.
But
in the fragile democracy — where ethnic warfare rages in border regions and
the coronavirus pandemic has worsened economic hardship —
the outcome threatens to divide rather than unify. Ethnic minority leaders say
the landslide has served to marginalize their voices while validating a cult of
personality around Suu Kyi.
The
results also underscore the gulf between the West, which has fallen
out of love with the former democracy campaigner over her defense of
the military against genocide charges, and Myanmar’s people, who see Suu Kyi as
a deity-like figure.
People
in Myanmar “voted out of absolute trust and faith in her,” said Richard Horsey,
senior adviser on Myanmar for the International Crisis Group. “There is a
devotion to her that is still very strong.”
Outpourings
of joy on the streets of Yangon in recent days mask the reality that the pressing
challenges facing the country, also known as Burma, will not see a new
approach.
Rather,
the landslide for the incumbent National League for Democracy (NLD) will
entrench Suu Kyi’s “inclination toward single-party domination,” said Khin Zaw
Win, a former political prisoner and analyst.
[A
coronavirus wave is hitting Myanmar, but Suu Kyi vows elections will go ahead]
“The
NLD has gained a supremacist position,” he said. “That does not bode well for
democracy and federalism in our ethnically diverse nation.”
Monywa
Aung Shin, a spokesman for the NLD, said the party will work toward peace and
building a democratic federal union, as outlined in its election
manifesto.
Optimism
erased
When
elections swept the NLD to power five years ago, optimism surrounded Myanmar’s
nascent transition from military rule.
Suu
Kyi, now 75, was installed as state counselor — she cannot be president because
of a technicality in the military-drafted constitution — and she oversaw the
civilian government, which shares power with the military.
Suu
Kyi vowed to end the military’s grip on power by changing the constitution,
which reserves a quarter of parliamentary seats for generals and gives the army
control over several ministries, and to work with the army to end generations
of ethnic conflict and protect individual rights.
Two
years later, Myanmar’s military launched a scorched-earth campaign against the
beleaguered Rohingya Muslim minority, razing villages and indiscriminately
killing, raping and torturing. Suu Kyi, who had never backed citizenship rights
or protections for the Rohingya, allied herself with the generals. Last year,
she personally defended Myanmar and its
military against genocide charges at The Hague.
Suu
Kyi’s status — she is revered domestically as the daughter of Myanmar’s
independence hero and as a former political prisoner who chose her
country over her dying husband — was solidified in this month’s
election. Her face was plastered over billboards, T-shirts and campaign
posters. Although campaign rallies were banned because of
the coronavirus, the red-and-yellow flag of the NLD was ubiquitous
in towns and cities.
[Suu
Kyi, former democracy icon, defends Myanmar against genocide allegations]
For
many casting their votes on Nov. 8, Suu Kyi’s inability to change the
constitution, remove the military from politics or deliver clear economic gains
ended up being immaterial, or at least secondary to their faith in her.
But
for some of the country’s more than 130 ethnic minority groups, which account
for more than 30 percent of the population, the pervasive public displays of
support for the NLD have reinforced the ruling party’s dominance at their
expense, and their perception of Suu Kyi as an icon only for the Bamar
majority.
Some
1.4 million people in minority townships in Rakhine, Shan, Kachin and
Kayin states were denied the right to vote, after election officials canceled
or postponed elections in those areas, citing conflict — a decision that
international observers say was
not transparent. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya also remain
disenfranchised, as they were in the previous election.
‘Invitation
to chaos'
Under
Suu Kyi’s rule, conflict has intensified in
Rakhine state, where an ethnic Buddhist Rakhine group known as the Arakan
Army is fighting the Myanmar military.
The
country’s electoral system, which awards seats to the party that receives a
plurality of votes, has further
sidelined ethnic minority parties, which mostly failed to make gains either
in the national parliament or the regional legislatures that they hoped to
control. An exception was Rakhine, where the ethnic Arakan National Party
dominates.
[China
embraces Myanmar as Western nations pull back]
“Change
in Myanmar is dependent only on the ruling party and the government, and how
much they would like to build peace,” said Tu Ja, chairman of the Kachin State
People’s Party, which won
one seat in the national parliament.
“We
don’t have a fair chance, or a shot at federalism,” he said, describing Suu
Kyi’s party as “chauvinistic.”
Suu
Kyi’s landslide win has also disappointed young activists, who have pushed for
more civil rights and do not see Suu Kyi or her party as representing their
interests. There are still hundreds of political prisoners in the country —
though it is led by a government largely constituted of former political
prisoners.
Ye
Wai Phyo Aung, founder of the free-expression advocacy group Athan, said the
NLD should “stand for human rights and democratic values” that were absent in
its first term.
“The
NLD should learn a lesson about their past five years of rule, especially in
political negotiations [with the military] and economic growth that they were
struggling with,” he said.
Long-term
observers are not holding their breath. Adding to the unease is the lack of a
clear successor to Suu Kyi, which Khin Zaw Win warns is an “invitation to chaos
and disaster.”
“Her
party has not achieved much in a country where a great deal needs to be done,”
he said. “If this were to be repeated for a second term, things are more than
likely to get worse.”
Diamond
reported from Yangon.
Read
more
Why
a tiny African country is taking the Rohingya’s case to the world court
Aung
San Suu Kyi, former democracy icon, defends Myanmar against genocide
allegations
China
embraces Myanmar as Western nations pull back
