Myanmar's strongman gives rare BBC interview

By Jonah Fisher

BBC News, Nay Pyi Taw

Is Senior General Min Aung Hlaing the most powerful man in Myanmar?

Quite possibly.

The commander-in-chief has control over how and where the army wages war, coupled with far reaching political powers.

In accordance with the military drafted constitution the 59-year-old has the right to appoints key ministers, choose a quarter of the MPs in the parliament and - as events last month showed - the ability to block any attempt to erode that power.

Getting an interview with him was not easy. For decades the Burmese army has regarded the foreign media, and the BBC in particular as an enemy of the state, too close to the pro-democracy movement.

But there have now been four years of reforms and we've opened a bureau in Yangon. So, in hope rather than expectation we sent our letter off.

The first response came back a month later. We'd fallen at the first hurdle having foolishly used the phrase "Burmese" rather than "Myanmar" army.

Having remedied that there then followed a series of increasingly bizarre meetings.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33587800

-- BBC 2015-07-20

This was in the article: "But there was no sign that he wanted to reduce the military's grip on Burmese political life and truly hand over to civilians."

..

Um, the US representative democracy was "never handed over to civilians" either.....