Aung San Suu Kyi has picked a long-time confidant to become Myanmar’s history-making new president, after failing to overturn a controversial constitutional clause that blocks her from the top job.
Htin Kyaw, a friend of 20 years who runs a charity for the veteran pro-democracy leader, was chosen for what she has said will be a proxy job to carry out her decisions.
Thursday’s nomination by the lower house of parliament dominated by Ms Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy will need to be approved by a vote of the full legislature, notching another landmark in the country’s long transition from military rule. The NLD has comfortable majorities in both houses of parliament, so it would be a big surprise were her choice to be rejected.
Mr Htin Kyaw, a 70-year-old author and Oxford university graduate, has been an adviser to Ms Aung San Suu Kyi since the 1990s and the start of her 15 years of house arrest. The new president will from 1 April lead a government to replace the military-backed administration, which has held power since the ruling junta of almost 50 years stepped down in 2011.
Mr Htin Kyaw’s nomination is final confirmation that Ms Aung San Suu Kyi will be denied the honour of leading the first administration since the 1960s to be chosen after a full, free and fair election. The NLD made a late effort to use its sweeping mandate from November’s poll to bargain with the still-powerful military for a change in the constitution, but talks broke down.
Ms Aung San Suu Kyi’s domestic and international supporters will be disappointed she has not managed to take the top job and fulfil what many people see as the legacy of her father, a murdered nationalist hero. But excluding her from the presidency has for years been the strategy of a military that has carefully controlled the political transition and still holds important positions in parliament, ministries and a committee with powers to overrule the legislature.
“The Myanmar story has never really veered far from the basic plot set 10 years ago,” tweeted Thant Myint-U, a historian and analyst, who advised the outgoing government on its internal peace process. “Observers looking for a dramatic climax miss the point.”
He added that Mr Htin Kyaw was “a stellar choice, well respected, unimpeachable integrity and a very nice man”.
Earlier on Thursday Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, who is banned from the presidency because her two sons hold foreign passports, called for people to be patient as the country seeks to shake off military rule. Her party has been waiting months since a landslide election victory in November, stoking already high expectations about what a government steered by the woman known to many simply as “The Lady” can achieve.
“I would like to appeal for people to support and stand by the NLD with wisdom and farsightedness,” she said. “The NLD is determined to meet people’s expectations and will do its best.”
Under Myanmar’s constitution, Mr Htin Kyaw is one of three people nominated — by each house of parliament and the military — to contest the presidency and two vice-presidential posts. The NLD has also chosen Henry Vantriu, a member of the Chin minority whose ancestral home is close to Myanmar’s borders with India and Bangladesh. The identity of the military’s pick is still not known.
