The presidency? Psssh. The National League for Democracy is over it.
The new ruling party’s patron, Tin Oo, once touted as a candidate for the post himself, has said that the position Aung San Suu Kyi has as state counselor is far superior to the one she had once been so keen to hold.
“If she wants, she can also be the president,” he said, speaking at an NLD ceremony at Royal Rose Restaurant in Yangon on Sunday, according to 7 Day. “This is better than that. Better than being a president. Very beautiful and proportionate.”
After securing a massive victory at polls in November, Suu Kyi pushed the military to help overturn a constitutional clause that blocks her from the presidency. The attempts were not successful.
After hinting that she would create a role that was “above the president”, she announced earlier this year that she would be ‘state counselor’. The vaguely-defined position gives her far-reaching powers to direct all government policy not controlled by the military. She also heads several ministries.
Htin Kyaw, her close friend and aide, was nominated for the presidency in her stead, and was elected.
“[Suu Kyi] would be busy with attending events or assigning ambassadors if she was a president,” said Tin Oo. “Now, U Htin Kyaw can work completely for her – a flexible friend since they were released [from arrest under the former military junta] became the president.”
At the party on Sunday, which celebrated 100 years since independence leader Aung San, Suu Kyi’s father, was born as well as the success of the 2015 general election campaign, Tin Oo said that the state counselor was working hard to secure harmony.
He reportedly said she was working on bringing peace among the country’s ethnic groups, many of which are locked in long-running civil war, and ensuring freedom of belief.
She has been widely criticized internationally for her silence on the plight of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority, tens of thousands of whom are confined to squalid camps in the western part of the country.
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