Politics

The Army flexes its political muscle - The leader of Myanmar’s military lawmakers says that they want to nominate current Commander-in-Chief, Min Aung Hlaing, for president following the 2015 elections. They believe Sen-Gen Ming Aung Hlaing will be a leading candidate for the presidency. According to Myanmar’s 2008 Constitution, the military, the Upper House and the Lower House will each appoint a vice-president. The Union Parliament, which comprises both houses, will then vote to determine which of these three will become president. Min Aung Hlaing is due to retire from the military in 2016 as he will then be 60 years old, he took over as commander of Myanmar’s Armed Forces after long-time leader Than Shwe retired in June 2010. As part of Myanmar’s democratic transition, planned by Than Shwe, many senior junta members retired to become civilian lawmakers with the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). The USDP controls 51 percent of the parliamentary seats. In 2011, Thein Sein was appointed president of the quasi-civilian government, which is dominated by the USDP. The government will be replaced after the free and fair elections in 2015, but according to the Constitution officers will continue to control a quarter of all parliamentary seats. Shwe Mann has said he wants to lead the USDP in 2015 in a bid to become president, while President Thein Sein has not yet ruled out running for a second term. Both will have to take on the opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy (NLD). However, currently the Constitution does not allow anyone with a foreign spouse to become president, effectively banning Suu Kyi, who was married to an English man, from becoming president. A parliamentary committee comprising different parties is currently looking into possibly amending the Constitution.

On Monday night, 15th October, a small bomb exploded in a guest room on the ninth floor at Traders Hotel, a business hotel in downtown Yangon. An American woman who was staying at the hotel with her family was injured in the blast. According to police, the bomb was planted in the toilet of room 921. Although the blast tore apart the bathroom, blew out the room’s window and left ceiling panels hanging, the family’s two young sons said they did not hear anything, only waking to see their wounded mother lying on the floor. The explosion at Traders was the third explosion in Yangon. A bomb also exploded in Pegu Division killing two people and injuring one. Two more explosive devices were found at restaurants in Yangon and Mandalay but did not detonate. Needless to say conspiracy theories abounded but interestingly the story faded as quickly as it arrived!