A party member sells party T-shirts and memorabilia at the
headquarters of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Yangon
Reuters
After its first national conference, questions remain about the NLD’s readiness for government
IT WAS a long time coming, but on March 9th Myanmar’s main
opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), began its first-ever
national congress. In part the three-day event was a celebration of the fact
that it was taking place at all.
Scarcely 18 months ago the party, founded in 1988 by Aung
San Suu Kyi and others to campaign against the country’s brutal military
dictatorship, was officially still illegal. It had for years struggled to survive.
Most of its leaders spent stretches in prison or, as in Miss Suu Kyi’s case,
under house arrest. Yet now a general election looms in 2015, and the NLD is
not only legal, it has a prospect of winning power. It is buoyed by landslide
victories in over 40 by-elections for the national parliament held last year.
Since President Thein Sein defied his army background and kick-started change
in 2011, the pace of Myanmar’s political liberalisation has been stunning.
Yet with the NLD’s new prominence comes fresh scrutiny. One
long-time activist says that the party’s “revolutionary period” is over. Now
the NLD must show competence. For decades it had held together thanks to shared
suffering. Now it must mediate among growing internal factions without falling
apart. It must come up with sound economic policies. And it must articulate a
national vision for a country racked by ethnic conflicts. That is a tall order
with an election 30 months away.
This congress was meant to be a first stab at dealing with
some of these issues. Ms Suu Kyi said that the party badly needed “new blood”.
Yet she and her colleagues failed to introduce much.
The NLD certainly sought to put its democratic credentials
on display. A new central committee of 120 members was elected in as
transparent a manner as possible, with the press invited in to observe the
counting. The party also made gestures towards “national reconciliation” by,
for example, inviting the armed forces’ political proxy, the Union Solidarity
and Development Party, to observe proceedings.
More problematic, however, was the election of a new
15-person executive committee that will run the party’s day-to-day affairs,
with Miss Suu Kyi in the chair. This is where the new blood is needed, but
instead the old guard returned. Its stalwarts have guided the party since 1988,
and many are now in their 70s or 80s; all but three were jailed or detained
under military rule. Miss Suu Kyi acknowledged that “some fighting” in the
party had taken place over the old guard’s refusal to give way, and this now
looks set to continue. Khin Lay, a student activist from the early days, argues
that “old is not enough to build the party…we need skilled leaders and
politicians”.
No one for a moment is suggesting that Miss Suu Kyi, who is
67, is among those who need to be swept aside. She is the figurehead of the
democracy movement, daughter of modern Burma’s founder, and revered around the
country. In the past, her stubbornness and single-mindedness have been priceless
assets. Yet now they might become liabilities. She exemplifies an autocratic
style of decision-making in the party that has begun to grate. As Ms Khin Lay
puts it, “the Lady says something, and that is policy…and that has not
changed”. Indeed, policy was not even discussed at the congress.
The party also did too little to reassure Myanmar’s many
troubled ethnic groups that the NLD, made up mostly of ethnic Burmans, is on
their side. Party stalwarts point out that seven of the new executive committee
are from ethnic-minority groups. Yet power still resides with the Burmans.
There are now loud complaints that Miss Suu Kyi has dropped her earlier talk of
federalism as a means to accommodate the political aspirations of the Karen,
Kachin, Rakhine and others.
In this, Miss Suu Kyi may feel bound by political
constraints. She aspires to be Myanmar’s next president in 2015. For that, she
needs to continue her rapprochement with old adversaries in the armed forces.
Resistance to federalist pressures is one reason why the army does not want to
open the 2008 constitution up to revision. But the constitution, imposed on the
country in a rigged referendum, also bars the Burmese spouse or parent of
foreign nationals from being president—a ban inserted specifically with Miss
Suu Kyi in mind (her late husband was British, and she has two sons brought up
in England). The next job, says Win Htein, a sprightly member of the NLD old
guard, is to mount a national campaign to press the army into changing the
constitution. That would be a hard task at the best of times. It will not be
helped if the NLD leadership itself becomes an issue among the party faithful.
The Economist Print Edition
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