BurmaPolitics: Parliament: Aung San Suu Kyi, Pro-democracy leader will run for Myanmar Parliament

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Huffington Post (November 20,2k11)
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YANGON, Myanmar -- Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi intends to run for parliament in upcoming by-elections, a decision that was expected after her party decided last week to rejoin mainstream politics in long-isolated Myanmar.

Nyan Win, the spokesman of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, said Monday she has not yet decided which district she will seek to represent. But she "has the intention to stand for the elections," he told The Associated Press.

In a landmark development, the NLD decided on Friday to rejoin politics and register for future elections, signaling its confidence in recent reforms by the nominally civilian government that took power earlier this year.

The military-aligned ruling party won the November 2010 parliamentary elections held by the junta as part of its promise to introduce democracy and relinquish power after nearly five decades of military rule.

The NLD boycotted the elections because of a law that had prevented Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi from running. The new government, however, later scrapped the law, allowing the NLD to take part in the political reforms now under way.

According to the new election law, a registered party is required to run for at least three seats in the legislature, made up of 224 members in the upper house and 440 members in the lower house. Of these, 48 seats are vacant for which special elections will be held, although no date has been set.

Suu Kyi had hinted on Friday that she would run for a parliamentary seat in the special elections, saying: "If one is engaged in politics, one has to do what is necessary. If I feel that I should take part in elections, I will participate."

She, however, cautioned that "the road ahead is full of difficulties and the road to democracy is endless."

Bringing Suu Kyi's party back into the fold would give the government greater legitimacy at home and abroad. It has already won cautious praise from international observers and critics, including the United States, for introducing reforms.

President Thein Sein, a former army officer, has shown a willingness to talk to Suu Kyi, lifted some restrictions on the media and the Internet, legalized unions and scrapped an unpopular dam project. Still, hundreds of political prisoners remain in jails.

Thein Sein has welcomed the NLD's decision to rejoin politics, saying it was "a positive signal."

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Myanmar: Release of Daw Aung San: Investors prepare to move into Burma

Investors prepare to move into Burma

Albuquerque News.Net
Monday 15th November, 2010

The release of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has caused a flurry of interest in the country from world businesses. 


["Daw" is her Burmese title as an elderly honoured woman.]


Investors have been speculating that her release might lead to the lifting of the sanctions affecting this resource-rich state. 

Ms Aung San has already spoken to her lawyers about getting her party, the National League for Democracy, declared legal again. 

She has also met officials of her National League for Democracy party who have been keeping her political network alive during her years of incarceration. 

Western multinationals [corporations] have up to now been unable to break sanctions put in place by the United States, Australia and the European Union. 

Investors are sizing up the vast potential of the country of 50 million people in need of mining, gas, agribusiness, tourism, financial services and telecommunications expertise.

The foregoing report was picked up and reported by the webs+t  Business and Human R+ts Resource Centre (BHRR) which is devoted to "tracking the positive and negative impacts of over 5100 companies worldw+d.  It's a large and well-organized s+t (English, Spanish, French).  But f+nding up-to-date material can be daunting.  


-- EconoMix

PoliticsMyanmar: Opposition: The Burmese leader of the opposition Aung San Suu Kyi released

Associated Press via Washington Post (Nov 13,2k10) carries pr+m nooz from Burma, as the country was called before the junta tried to rename it Myanmar. The great human r+ts leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been released.

Burma democracy leader 

Aung San Suu Kyi released

YANGON, Myanmar -- Pro-democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi walked free Saturday after more than seven years under house arrest, welcomed by thousands of cheering supporters outside the decaying lakefront villa that has been her prison.

Aung is another of the world's great non-violent opposition leaders working for major structural change of the polity of her soc+ety.   The Myanmar junta released her becawz internationally the country was sanctioned by an extremely bad reputation, a fate bitterly annoying to the handful of generals with real power in Burma.

Aung is correctly caled the pro-democracy leader.  "If we work in unity, we will achieve our goal."

-- Politicarp

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Myanmar: Election results: Losers win, junta govt served, people stayed away from voting polls

I guess in the several nooz reports I read regarding the election results from Myanmar (former Burma) was the headline that the world's parliamentarians, governments, and pundits "dismiss" the elections and their results.  A refugee Burmese noozpaper published in English provides the following report by Ko Htwe in The Irrawaddy (Nov8,2k10).

refWrite refBloggers Insert -- devoted to the freedom to use the Internet, to the freedom to blog, and to freedom of the press / media -- more generally carried an article with a marvellous pix, from Agence Press France, "Burma's Internet Slows to a Stop" in the original and "Burma: Internet: Net winds down to a halt" in rWrBI's coverage.  The article is written by Wai Moe and Min Lwin (Feb2,2k10).

-- Owlb