Myanmar Military Embraces Enemy Aung San Suu Kyi In State Administration Council

Aung San Suu Kyi (left) and General Min Aung Hlaing. (Wikipedia Commons / Chainwit)

JAKARTA - Three ethnic politicians from political parties who oppose Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) government, who are also political enemies, were selected by the Myanmar military regime to join the State Administration Council (SAC).

The SAC, which was formed a day after the military takeover with coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing as chairman, has a total of 16 members so far.

One of the SAC members who is also Aung San Suu Kyi's political enemy is Aye Nu Sein, a lawyer as well as a politician and spokesperson for the Arakan National Party (ANP). As a member of the ANP Policy Board, he was a critic of the overthrown NLD Government.

Last week, Aye Nu Sein urged the military to prioritize the interests of the people and the image of the country, after a Tatmadaw spokesperson refused to rule out a coup over the military's claims of election fraud.

“It was an unwanted comment [about a possible coup]. This kind of threat should not be raised, because the military is already entitled to a share of administrative power under the Constitution, ”he said in a political talk show organized by Suara Demokratik Burma last Friday, reported The Irrawaddy.

Old wounds

The ANP said in a statement on Thursday that it would cooperate with the military regime as necessary, in the national interest of Rakhine. The party avoided direct reference to the military's takeover of power on Monday, and only criticized the NLD and the military for failing to resolve their political strife, leading to an unwanted declaration of emergency by the military.

ANP Secretary U Tun Aung Kyaw, who won the High Council seat in the November 8 election last year, shared his views with The Irrawaddy.

“We were ignored by the ruling party [NLD] for the last five years [from 2015 to 2020], and they never invited us to hold negotiations. "

Rohingya refugee camp, (Wikipedia Commons / Captain Raju)

He blamed the NLD for the General Election Commission's decision to cancel the vote for security reasons a week before the November 8 vote in nine small Rakhine State towns affected by armed conflict. And its failure to re-run elections in affected areas before Jan. 31, the last day of the parliamentary session.

The Rakhine politician insisted that the rescheduled voting in those areas would be held before the start of a new session of Parliament on February 1. Meanwhile, the existing law only allows by-elections to be held within one year of voting.

“Our country has many problems that must be resolved, including the problem of internal refugees and hundreds of civilians who have been arrested in acts of terrorism. We firmly believe that ANP has a duty to solve this problem and we will accept any collaboration to help the community, ”he said.

Another person SAC appointed, Saw Daniel, through Thursday is Deputy Chair of the Kayah State Democratic Party (KySDP), the state's rival to the NLD.

However, on Thursday, the KySDP said in a statement that it had removed Saw Daniel as deputy chairman for his participation in the military-led SAC. The party said Daniel's decision to join the council was made independently.

KySDP said Daniel was no longer part of the party. KySDP condemned the military takeover and called for the immediate release of all detained politicians and for the election results to be respected.

Also appointed to SAC is Sai Lone Hseng, a former spokesperson for Shan State representing the United Solidarity and Development Party, the NLD's main rival and military proxy party. Two other ethnicities previously appointed to SAC are Jeng Phang Naw Taung and U Moung Har, a former manager of the Economic Bank of Myanmar.