Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi loyalist Htin Kyaw favorite for president
Selection process underway for new head of state. The NLD candidates close associate of the "Lady", an honest and low-profile Oxford graduate. According to some of his best quality is "knowing how to take orders." A choice that confirms Suu Kyi as the key figure in the future of the country.
Yangon (AsiaNews / Agencies) – Myanmar’s Parliament has launched the selection process for the new President of the Republic, after the second five-year term (recently concluded) of Thein Sein.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), who triumphed in last November's elections and holds the majority in parliament, has indicated two names for the prestigious post. In all probability the next head of state will be Htin Kyaw, loyal to the "Lady", an honest and low-key Oxford graduate who has held key posts in the executive committee of the party.
Htin Kyaw’s candidacy confirms that the number one of the NLD, Suu Kyi, will not be elected President of Myanmar. Indeed, a notorious contra personam norm has always precluded the possibility of her aspiring to the highest position in the State.
The "Lady" has tried in every way to repeal the law to compete for the office in agreement with the military, without success. However, since victory at the polls the Nobel Peace Laureate has claimed her success and that of her party, which she says ensures her role - without ever defining it in detail – will be "above" that of the president.
In all probability Htin Kyaw (pictured) who has spent his life in the shadow of Aung San Suu Kyi, even serving as her driver, will lead the country for the next five years. He is a leading figure in the party and was next to the "Lady" when she was released from house arrest in November 2010.
According to experts his best quality is to "know how to take orders." One more confirmation, if ever proof were needed, that the choice of a trusted person by the leaders of the NLD, who will unofficially be the true leader of Myanmar for the next five years.
The indication of the names for the presidency by the winning party is the first official act in the selection process which will take place in the next few days. The Speakers of both houses can also run for the position (Htin Kyaw has been selected from the lower house) and a person chosen by the army; one of the three will be the future leaders, while the other two losers will contend the post of vice-president.
Htin Kyaw, 70, is a member of the Central Executive Committee of the NLD and a staunch Suu Kyi supporter. He has a reputation for honesty and loyalty, and has always maintained a low profile. His father, the writer and poet Min Thu Wun, had won a seat in 1990 elections won by the Democrats, but never recognized by the junta. His wife Su Su Lwin is the daughter of one of the founders of the NLD and leading figure of the party. He also held a prominent role in Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, the charitable organization founded in honor and in memory of the mother of the "Lady".
Aung San Suu Kyi seems to have put aside the ambition to become the next President of Myanmar, but also retains she will lead the country without a clear institutional role. Her main aim remains that of a "national reconciliation" government and to pacify the many souls fighting each other in the former Burma. Moreover, already in October 2013, in an exclusive interview with AsiaNews, the Nobel laureate stated that "peace and unity" were the values through which it would be possible to "build a democratic Burma."
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17/03/2021 13:08
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