The embattled Speaker of Myanmar’s parliament opened the lower house on Tuesday for what will likely be a fractious session, with ruling party factions facing each other for the first time since the President sacked him from a leadership post last week.
President Thein Sein’s purge of Shwe Mann and his allies from the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) leadership marked the biggest shakeup in the political establishment since a junta stepped aside in 2011, ending 49 years of military rule.
On her way into parliament on Tuesday, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said the November election was more of a concern for her party than internal USDP matters.
She declined to comment on what the two discussed at an hour-long meeting on Monday, as the country’s leaders manoeuvred ahead of the showdown in parliament.
“The internal affairs of the USDP should only be party affairs,” she told reporters. “We will take action if anything interferes with parliament. People are more worried about the elections and so are we.”
Mr. Shwe Mann’s relationship with Ms. Suu Kyi was regarded with suspicion by some members of the USDP, which is mostly made up of former military officers, and was one of the motives for his sacking as party chairman.
In early exchanges, Mr. Shwe Mann rejected a proposal by two USDP members to table an emergency bill to shorten the session. The MPs said they wanted to curtail parliament to deal with widespread floods.
“I understand that there are natural disasters and MPs have to carry out election campaigns, but it is the responsibility of the lawmakers to establish the laws that are important for the country,” he said.
“Therefore I cannot accept the bill, but I will try to finish the parliamentary session earlier than planned.”
Floods have killed more than 100 people have died and more than a million impacted by floods, which also delayed the start of the parliamentary session.
Rival factions
Mr. Shwe Mann retains the powerful position of Speaker in the lower house, a duty he took up again as the session opened in Naypyitaw, the new capital built in secrecy by the former military government.
It is the final session before a general election on November 8, seen as a crucial test of the country’s democratic reforms.
He is under pressure from the country’s election commission to table an impeachment bill that could be used to unseat him and may be supported by the President’s faction.
Mr. Shwe Mann’s allies vowed to defend him in parliament.
“Most of the USDP lawmakers in the lower house are going to support Shwe Mann,” said Aung Lynn Hlaing, a USDP member of parliament, on his way into parliament.
“Shwe Mann always represents us when we are ignored by the president. I think it’s not right the way they did what they did in our party.”
Mr. Shwe Mann was removed in a late-night meeting hosted by presidential allies after security forces locked down the party headquarters.
The move came just a day before the submission deadline for party candidate lists for the election, billed as the country’s first free and fair vote in 25 years.
Tension between the two rivals rose after the USDP last week omitted from its list the majority of a group of around 150 officers who retired from military service to run as USDP candidates.
The USDP also sidelined two of the President’s closest allies by leaving them off the candidate list.
They were Soe Thein, a powerful Minister of the President’s Office, and Aung Min, who was picked by Mr. Thein Sein to lead the government’s efforts to forge a peace agreement with the country’s armed ethnic groups.
Mr. Shwe Mann’s fall from grace bears echoes of the political purges under the junta, leading some to doubt Mr. Shwe Mann has a future in public life.
“We can be sure they will uproot him by hook or by crook,” said Thein Nyint, a member of the parliament from the New National Democracy Party (NNDP).
“So my best advice for him is ‘resign from the Speaker’s position if you want to prevent further perils for you and your family’.”
