The near sweep by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party in the Myanmar by-elections vindicates the once-proscribed National League for Democracy (NLD). Of intriguing significance is what the development could mean for the country’s rehabilitation. In the eyes of voters, Suu Kyi’s restoration to the parliamentary process, after a long enforced absence, is so complete that she could pose a credible challenge to President Thein Sein’s ruling party. Parliamentary elections are due in 2015. The NLD won 43 of the 44 seats it contested on Sunday, according to official results announced Tuesday by state television. Although these form only 7 percent of Parliament, the NLD’s uniformly strong showing and Suu Kyi’s immense popularity must give the governing Union Solidarity and Development Party pause. One Yangon observer wondered if the party was “staring into the abyss”.
But that is for another time. Three years is an eternity in politics. For now, voters can celebrate Myanmar’s promising return to normalcy. It is also hard to divine how Suu Kyi, as the conscience of the nation, will fare as a workaday legislator who will be judged by results. She will do best by supporting the government in promoting growth and national healing. In victory remarks, she spoke of the NLD success as the people’s, and pleaded for humility in victory. She desires reconciliation. These are helpful hints from a pragmatist who has praised the president as being sincere in wanting to turn Myanmar around.
Yet pessimists might hear echoes of 1990 in the NLD’s performance. That was the year when Suu Kyi led her party to a famous parliamentary landslide. The result was annulled by the junta and Myanmar’s long dark night followed. There is some concern whether Thein Sein has control of hardline leaders in the former junta who were not appointed to his civilian Cabinet after the 2010 elections. How firm his hold is will shape the course of Myanmar’s progress towards respectability.
The next move is Suu Kyi’s. Campaigning for the military’s removal from national politics is best deferred until the country is stable, and preferably done in consultation with the ruling establishment. Above all, the NLD should play a constructive role in Parliament to help Myanmar make up for lost time. If collaboration with her one-time tormentors is established and reforms continue, Myanmar will be freed of restraints imposed by the international community. Investments will start to flow. As she told supporters, a new era has begun.
