Pro-Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won 40 out of 45 parliamentary seats up for grabs in by-elections held in Myanmar on Sunday.
Suu Kyi proclaimed the results “a triumph of the people.” She also indicated that she expected further positive results for her National League For Democracy Party (NLD) when official tallies are released at the end of the week.
Suu Kyi’s and her party’s electoral success will not alter the balance of Mynamar’s parliament as only a small number of seats were contested. But the vote was being watched closely both in and outside Myanmar as a key indicator of the ruling generals commitment to continuing reforms.
U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton praised those who participated in the vote but registered a note of caution, saying “It’s too early to know what recent progress means and whether it will be sustained.” Speaking from a summit in Istanbul on the ongoing crisis in Syria, Clinton acknowledged that she was encouraged by the news from Myanmar and contrasted the reforms initiated by Myanmar’s regime with the ongoing crackdown carried out by the Syrian government.
Clinton’s December 2011 visit to Myanmar offered hope that the nation was emerging from international isolation. The visit also demonstrated Washington’s desire to support reform and forge closer ties with the resource rich and strategically located country.
Beginning in November 2010 the then newly installed President Thein Sein initiated a wave of reforms that included opening a dialogue with Nobel Prize winning opposition leader Suu Kyi, releasing her from a nearly decade long house arrest. The reform process signals a striking shift from Myanmar’s leaders who last came to widespread international attention after putting down the so called “Saffron Uprising” in 2007.
Former UN Under-Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor, now an Indian MP, wrote during Clinton’s visit in December that the Generals’ moves were almost certainly cynically motivated. By Suu Kyi’s participating in elections the ruling junta could create an “illusion of freedom” for international consumption, he said.
Joshua Kurlantzick, a Fellow at The Council On Foreign Relations, who is supportive of the thawing in relations between the United States and Myanmar also notes that the country’s leaders may have very relevant geographic reasons for wanting to move into the global mainstream. President Sein acknowledged in a public forum that Myanmar had stalled in its development efforts.
Observers expect the full extent of Myanmar’s democratization to hinge on Washington’s balancing of priorities. A government that still features a politically powerful military, but also provides a substantive role for Ms. Suu Kyi and other opposition politicians will meet Washington’s threshold for continuing to ease sanctions on Myanmar they say.
