[Myanmar] Myanmar Opposition Set To Boycott Parliament

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MYANMAR

Myanmar opposition set to boycott parliament

The Nation

YANGON: -- Myanmar democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi andelected members of her party were expected to miss the reconvening of Parliament next week after objectifying to the swearing-in oath, aparty spokesman said Friday.

"I am 90 per cent sure they will not attend on Monday," NationalLeague for Democracy (NLD) party spokesman Nyan Win told a press conference.

NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi and 36 other members of Myanmar’s mainopposition party who won seats in the April 1 by-elections wereinitially scheduled to be sworn in to Parliament in the capitalNaypyitaw, 350 kilometres north of Yangon, on Monday.

But last week, Suu Kyi and other NLD members objected to the oath,which obliges them to "safeguard" the constitution promulgated in2010, under the junta.

Suu Kyi, 66, promised during her by-election campaign to push toamend the article that allows the military to appoint 25 per cent ofthe members in the three houses of parliament - lower, upper andregional.

Nyan Win traveled to Naypyitaw on Thursday to persuade theConstitutional Tribunal to reword the oath to "respect" theconstitution, but failed to do so.

NLD members held a meeting Friday and decided to send a petitionto both the Constitutional Tribunal and the President’s Office toseek another compromise over the oath-taking issue, Nyan Win said.

A response is likely to take some time, so it is highly unlikelythat Suu Kyi and her NLD colleagues would attend the opening sessionon Monday, he said.

Observers have downplayed the seriousness of the oath-takingissue.

Monday is only the reconvening of a previous Parliament session.The new full session, in which Suu Kyi and her NLD colleagues mustparticipate, is scheduled to begin in June or July.

Monday is significant, however, in that it coincides with ameeting in Brussels to decide whether the European Union will renewits economic sanctions on Myanmar, imposed because of the poor humanrights record of the junta that ruled the country from 1988 to 2010.

"It’s no secret that the negotiations are ongoing and there willbe a decision on Monday," said a European diplomat in Yangon. "Thisissue over the oath-taking may have a minor influence on the outcome,but not a major one."

Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under house arrest before she wasreleased in November 2010, raised her objection to the oath at ameeting with President Thein Sein last week.

The president initiated the dialogue with the Nobel Peace Prizelaureate with a meeting in August, paving the way for her entry intomainstream politics.

Thein Sein - a member of the pro-military Union Solidarity andDevelopment Party, which won the November 2010 general elections -has instigated a series of political reforms aimed at developing thecountry and persuading Western democracies to drop sanctions.

-- The Nation 2012-04-20