Burma Review 2013, Aung Din (Final).pdf

call to stop wars in Kachin State 12 , her refusal to get involved to find peaceful solution in Rakhine State,
and her failure to denounce the Burmese military for its human rights violations in ethnic areas
effectively made ethnic populations to reduce their love and reliance on her.
She is still popular among ordinary citizens as the Burma’s most famous celebrity or personality cult,
but not among many democracy activists and civil society leaders. Her party, the NLD, is in chaos 13 .
While the party leaders have recruited new members who are rich, famous, well-educated, and wellconnected,
old members who sacrificed their lives for the party over 20 years and were tortured and
imprisoned by the military regime are being marginalized and driven out from the party 14 . Meanwhile,
her relations with crony capitalists have been growing. Well-known cronies and those who are under the
United States and EU’s targeted sanctions are now major contributors of her party and her social
activities. 15 While she has enjoyed VIP treatment from the government, cronies, and in the Parliament in
Naypyitaw, her party headquarters in Rangoon is kind of leaderless, struggling with lack of policy, unity
and clear direction, except selling posters and postcards with her photos.
It is still possible that if the election in 2015 is free and fair, her party may capture a majority of seats in
the Lower House and Upper House. Although she can’t be the President as the constitution rendered her
ineligible, she will have chances to install a new civilian government with her party members and
control the Parliament as a Speaker. Now is the time for her to solidify and strengthen the party
membership with already-tested peoples, organize an effective coalition with other democracy and
ethnic parties, develop strategy to win majority in the upcoming elections, and train and groom a group
of leaders who may become new president and cabinet members after the election. Instead, she has now
focused more on claiming unrealistically that she wants to be the President. 16
Although she has offered olive branch to the military many times with beautiful words, she didn’t have
positive response yet. She asked Shwe Mann to include military representatives in her Rule of Law
Committee, but Min Aung Hlaing didn’t allow it. She asked General Way Lwin, Minister of Defense, to
work with her in the Investigative Commission on Mount Latpadaung Copper Mine Project as the
secretary of the Commission, but he turned down her offer. Although she met with Thein Sein and Shwe
Mann several times, she still doesn’t have a chance to meet Min Aung Hlaing yet.
The 88 Generation Students Group 17
This is the second most popular activist group in Burma after Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD. Leaders
of the group who had organized the nationwide popular democracy uprising in 1988 at the age of 20
something and spent over decades in prisons are now around 50-year old mature leaders of the country’s
12 Open Letter to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from Kachin Organizations, January 10, 2013,
http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5193:follow-up-open-letter-to-daw-aung-sansuu-kyi-from-kachin-organizations-january-10th&catid=102:mailbox&Itemid=279
13 Suu Kyi Exposes Local “Disunity” in NLD Party, Mizzima News, October 12, 2012, http://www.mizzima.com/news/insideburma/8217-suu-kyi-exposes-local-disunity-in-nld-party.html
14 500 NLD Members Quit in Pathein, The Irrawaddy, October 23, 2012, http://www.irrawaddy.org/?slide=500-nldmembers-to-quit-in-pathein
15 Suu Kyi’s Links to Notorious Burmese Weapons Dealer Exposed? By Francis Wade in Eurasia Review, January 15, 2013,
http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/8503-monywa-inquiry-commission-reduced-in-numbers-and-powers.html
16 Aung San Suu Kyi Eyes Burmese Presidency, CBC News, October 8, 2012,
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/10/08/burma-suu-kyi-presidency.html
17 88 Generation Students Group, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/88_Generation_Students_Group and Profile: 88
Generation Students, BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6958363.stm
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