Suu Kyi offers to step down after

failure to unite a fractured Burma

Suu Kyi attends an event marking the 69th anniversary of

Martyrs' Day at the Martyrs' Mausoleum in Yangon, on July 19,
2016. Source: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun

By Emma Richards | 31st March 2017

ONE year on from the landslide victory of the National League for
Democracy (NLD), Burmas (Myanmar) once-revered iconic leader,
Aung San Suu Kyi, is offering to step down after acknowledging
the publics frustration with the slow pace of reforms and
development.
When I joined politics, I said I promise one thing; that I will do
my best. Thats all. I cant do better than that, Suu Kyi said in a
televised speech on Thursday, as reported by The Age.
So if you think I am not good enough for our country and our
people, if someone or some organisation can do better than us,
we are ready to step down.

How times have changed since the party swept to victory on a

wave of optimism with Suu Kyi proudly at the helm. In a rare
vindication of history, a former political prisoner had managed to
secure her freedom and rally party members to stage a
remarkable comeback against the corrupt and violent regime that
was responsible for her capture. It was truly the stuff of
Hollywood.

Sky-high expectations

With an entrance into politics of this magnitude, the expectations

for Suu Kyi and the ruling NLD were high, to say the least. With
such overstated optimism surrounding the administration,
disappointment was almost inevitable. But Suu Kyis party has not
just been disappointing, some feel it has been actively working
against some of those hard-fought idealistic values for which it
rose to power.
Suu Kyi returns after giving a speech to her supporters during the
election campaign at Kawhmu Township, in March 2012. Source:
Reuters

Expectations were extremely high for change, even as observers

understood the constraints the NLD faced, Derek Mitchell, former
US ambassador to Burma from 2012 to 2016, told TIME.

That said, people do question whether the NLD, and Aung San
Suu Kyi herself, have made the most of their first year in office.

Voices of dissent are becoming more vocal both in and outside of

Burma as opinion of Suu Kyi as an aloof leader, above public
scrutiny and highly anti-media, grows.

Often choosing to remain silent on key issues and lacking

the ability to articulate her governments policies, Suu Kyis
distant approach has been accused of compounding the myriad of
problems facing the country, such as the Rohingya crisis, armed
conflicts between ethnic groups, and a struggling economy.

SEE ALSO: Amid mounting criticism, is Aung San Suu Kyi still a
noble Nobel winner?

Many voters feel frustrated, Myo Zaw Aung, an MP in Suu Kyis

NLD party told Reuters.
People had sky-high expectations for the NLD, but actually, the
change cant be that dramatic. They are not seeing an obvious
change at the grassroots level, he said.
The problems Suu Kyi and her party inherited from its military
predecessors were massive with deep roots in the countrys
history and culture.

Clashes between Buddhism and Islam, citizenship claims of the

Rohingya minority, and ethnic violence that has kept the country
in civil war for over 70 years, are issues all previous governments
have failed to manage, let alone solve. To expect the NLD to
conquer them in a year was perhaps a tall order, and the party
has been accused of overzealous optimism and of
underestimating the challenges ahead.

Slowing momentum

Suu Kyi and the NLD had no experience in government before

coming to power last year. The partys main focus was to replace
the military government. Once in power, however, their lack of
strategy and policy knowledge became evident.
It (the NLD) had no articulate and developed set of policy
alternatives and no carefully conceived strategies of
implementation, Robert Taylor, a scholar at the Center for
Southeast Asian Studies in Kyoto University, said.

The partys two priorities after taking office were the fraught
peace process to resolve the decades-long civil war, and the
flagging economy that had been shackled by years of isolationist
military policy.

SEE ALSO: Burma seeks to expel Rohingya Muslim minority

UN expert

After moving the Myanmar Peace Centre, a base setup by the

previous government to manage the peace process, from Yangon
to the capital Naypyitaw, the administration was accused of
slowing momentum and quashing any progress that had been
made previously.
Teamed with the NLDs lack of new initiatives to drive the process
and absence of a clear direction, the process began to backslide,
leading armed conflict in the northern states to intensify under
the new administrations floundering efforts.

Pulled in many directions

The economy has also faltered over the last 12 months. Once
thought to be the next Asian Tiger, development slowed once it
became clear Suu Kyi was to prioritise political settlement over
economic growth, and her apparent micromanaging and lack of
delegation slowed momentum.
She has taken on a multitude of roles within government. As state
counsellor a role equivalent to that of a prime minister and
foreign minister, with all of the travel and time constraints that
come with it, Suu Kyi is being pulled in many directions.

Without the team or the impetus to delegate, this convoluted

approach has essentially left many areas falling short.

All of her governance has also been conducted against the

backdrop of a tense, power-sharing environment with the very
military she condemned whilst in opposition.

SEE ALSO: Foreign journalists given 4-day pass to investigate

Rakhine violence Burmese media

Burma constitution enshrines the political power of the armed

forces by reserving a quarter of parliamentary seats for those in
the military. It also requires more than a 75 percent majority to
enact amendments, essentially giving the commander-in-chief a
veto to any attempts to change it.
Suu Kyi walks to take an oath at the lower house of Parliament in
Naypyitaw in May 2012. Source: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun

The military also remains in control of vital ministries Home

Affairs, Border Affairs, and Defence.

The Home Affairs Ministry controls all levels of general

administration, further diluting the ruling partys ability to
implement policies effectively.

While the NLD came into power with aspirations for great change,
it appears it takes time to make such changes in the culture
instilled during the previous rule.

Dialogue and discussion, explanation and response,

disagreement and discord, are at the heart of an effective
government, Taylor explains.
The military administrations that shaped Myanmars current
bureaucracy discouraged, if not prohibited, this process.

Considering the decades-old slogan of the bureaucracy, Ma lou

ma pyo ma sho dont do any work, dont take any actions,
dont get fired the lack of progress in changing this is probably
unsurprising.

Challenging role

But Suu Kyi has been accused of suppressing discord and

disagreement given her governments thin-skinned nature as it
confronts legitimate criticism, further suppressing potential for
constructive dialogue.

With the countrys previously insurmountable inherited problems

and a tense environment fraught with suspicion and distrust, Suu
Kyi was handed a role that would have challenged even the most
adroit of politicians.

Add to this the almost saint-like reputation she garnered before

taking office, and disappointment was almost inevitable.

Economic underdevelopment, civil war and degradation of

virtually every institution save one the military over the past
50 years cannot be wiped away by a single election, former
ambassador Mitchell told the Nikkei Review.
Nor can the legacies of social division, mistrust and corruption
created in their wake.
Posted by Thavam