YANGON, Nov 29 – Aung San Suu Kyi has warned newly minted MPs she will not tolerate poor discipline or wrongdoing, party members said on Nov 28 that as Myanmar’s democracy champion began marshalling her opposition for government amid sky-high expectations.
Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party took nearly 80 per cent of contested seats in the November 8 election, promising change after decades of corrosive and corrupt army control of the country. But she cannot be president under the junta-scripted constitution.
Instead the party leader has vowed to rule from “above the president” via a proxy who will be selected by the NLD-dominated legislature in the new year. Observers say the NLD, a party of opposition for 25 years, will struggle to match the soaring hopes of a long-suffering people who crave remedies to the nation’s deep economic and social problems.
New MPs will also have to learn the nuts and bolts of power and policy making as well as deliver on the party’s change narrative NLD lawmakers yesterday said Ms Suu Kyi used a party meeting to call for unity and warn newcomers to office that poor discipline or conduct will be punished.
“She doesn’t want anyone to build a small building inside the big one,” said Ms Thet Thet Khine, an elected NLD MP in Yangon and a prominent party figure. Any MP who wants to build his or her personal group inside the NLD ‘building’ will not be accepted,” she said.
In the meantime, another new lawmaker also said that Ms Suu Kyi cautioned the party against to “betraying the people” who overwhelmingly shunned the army-backed ruling in the party at the polls which had to give the NLD control of both parliamentary houses.
