Myanmar’s military leaders are reluctant to amend the constitution because they don’t trust the people, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Saturday.
“The military doesn’t trust the people, and the people don’t believe in the military,” Ms. Suu Kyi told a crowd of 15,000 people gathered to hear her speak on the need for changes to the constitution to make Myanmar more democratic.
The 2008 charter, drafted by a committee selected by the former ruling junta, gives the military control over 25 per cent of all seats in parliament, enough to veto any amendments or legislation.
The charter was pushed through by the junta’s former chief, Senior General Than Shwe, who was reportedly worried about retribution for his harsh rule from 1992 to 2010 when thousands of political prisoners were jailed and protests brutally suppressed.
“Some senior person is worried about the future,” Ms. Suu Kyi said. “I understand that they want to keep the constitution the way it is to protect their lives.” According to political observers, Than Shwe, although retired, still wields influence over the military hierarchy and current President Thein Sein, a former army general whose pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party won the November 2010 polls. Ms. Suu Kyi and 42 members of her National League for Democracy party won parliamentary seats in a by-election in April 2012.
But the Nobel Peace Prize laureate is barred from becoming Myanmar’s next president in a general election scheduled in 2015 because of a clause in the constitution that prohibits Myanmar citizens with foreign spouses or children from claiming the presidency.
Suu Kyi was married to the late Michael Aris, a British professor.
The couple had two sons, Alexander and Kim, both of whom were born in Britain and have British nationality.
