Blocked from presidency, Suu Kyi to be Myanmar foreign minister

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar (5th UPDATE) – Aung San Suu Kyi will be foreign minister in Myanmar’s first civilian government for decades, her party said Tuesday, March 22, giving the democracy champion a formal post despite being blocked from the presidency.

The Nobel laureate has already vowed to rule above the man picked as president, Htin Kyaw, in the government which comes to power next week in the former army-ruled nation.

Suu Kyi was the sole woman and one of only 6 members of her National League for Democracy party in a cabinet list read out to lawmakers early Tuesday by the parliament speaker Mann Win Khaing Than, who did not specify which position she or others would hold.

But NLD spokesman Zaw Myint Maung later confirmed she would lead the foreign ministry and hinted that she would also hold other roles, without specifying which ones. 

“She will be the foreign minister, mainly. If she wants to share the duties she has in other ministries with qualified people, she can assign them,” he told reporters.

The NLD only named 15 ministers for 18 posts chosen by the civilian government, sparking speculation that Suu Kyi would take on 4 portfolios – widely believed to be foreign affairs, education, energy, and the president’s office.

Oxford-educated Suu Kyi, 70, is the daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero and towered over the country’s democracy movement as it waged a spirited and non-violent struggle against almost half a century of military rule.

But she is blocked from the presidency by the junta-drafted constitution because her two sons are British, as was her late husband.

‘Heart of government’

Myanmar has undergone a stunning political transformation in recent years, blossoming from isolation under the junta to become an increasingly vibrant nation. Its growing political openness was crowned by a historic November election that saw the NLD storm to victory.

But the country still faces huge challenges, including the continued might of an army that for years viewed Suu Kyi and her party with deep suspicion.

The NLD has operated under a veil of secrecy since the polls, only revealing its choice of president days before his election by  parliament last week.  

Suu Kyi has held several rounds of talks with army chief Min Aung Hlaing since the elections, but was unable to remove the constitutional barrier to her presidency.

The foreign ministry role gives her international clout and a seat at the influential military-dominated Security Council.

“She wants to be at the heart of government. She wants to do it properly and formally and – this is important to her – legally,” Trevor Wilson, an academic at the Australian National University and former ambassador to Myanmar, told AFP. 

Under Myanmar’s complex political rules, the cabinet role means she will have to forgo her seat in parliament, although her party insisted she would maintain her chairmanship of the NLD.

Htin Kyaw is Suu Kyi’s long-term confidante and ally and seen as utterly loyal. Last week he said his rise to the leadership was “Suu Kyi’s victory”. 

But his novice administration faces a raft of challenges – including conflict in ethnic minority border areas, entrenched poverty and the need to rapidly improve decrepit infrastructure and long-neglected education and health services. 

Another key challenge will be smoothing relations with the army that locked up Suu Kyi and other NLD politicians for years during junta rule.

The military still holds strong political sway under a charter that reserves a quarter of parliament seats for unelected soldiers and grants the army chief direct control over three key ministries; home affairs, border affairs, and defense.   

But Min Aung Hlaing has pledged his support for the political transition.

The new government, which under Myanmar’s political system does not have a prime minister, has offered few hints about its policies beyond streamlining the notoriously labyrinthine civil service.

Suu Kyi’s party has said it wants a government of national reconciliation and the cabinet includes several people unaffiliated with any political party, as well as two members of the main army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.

One of the nominated USDP ministers, former general Thein Swe, told reporters he would work together with the new government “for the national interest.”

A parliamentary vote to confirm the posts is expected later in the week. – Rappler.com