March 31, 2016

Myanmar’s new President, Htin Kyaw (at left), receives the presidential seal from outgoing president Thein Sein during the handover ceremony at the presidential palace in Naypyidaw, March 30, 2016. Credit: © Ye Aung Thu, Pool/Reuters

Yesterday, March 30, Htin Kyaw became the first civilian president of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) since 1962. Kyaw is a staunch ally of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese human rights activist whose struggle to return Myanmar to democracy earned her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize—as well as a lengthy time under house arrest. In 2000, Htin Kyaw served four months in prison for helping Aung San Suu Kyi travel outside Yangon, the nation’s largest city.

In 1962, Burmese Army General Ne Win seized power from the democratically elected government. He suspended the Burmese Constitution and set up a Revolutionary Council of military leaders. Ne Win—who changed his title from general to president—and his Revolutionary Council allowed only one political party—their own. The nation fell on hard economic times, and the government closed the nation’s borders, took over media and schools, and put down unrest with gunfire. Ne Win and his party ruled strictly until 1988, when social and political unrest led the military to seize power from Ne Win. In 1989, the new military leaders changed the nation’s name from Burma to Myanmar.

In recent years, the military had eased political restrictions and given more power to the nation’s elected Union Assembly. In 2010, they released Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, but a complex system of laws bans her from ever serving as president. On March 15, 2016, Myanmar’s Union Assembly elected Htin Kyaw as the new president, but Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to govern through him.

Other World Book articles

• Asia (a Back in time article-1962)
• Myanmar (Back in time articles-1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 2014)
• Nobel Prize (a Back in time article)

November 13, 2015

Although final results are not yet available, election officials in the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar (also called Burma) announced today that the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) won an absolute majority of seats in both houses of the country’s parliament. After the new members of parliament are sworn in early next year, they will elect a president. International observers praised the November 8 elections as the most democratic to be held in Myanmar in 25 years.

On Nov. 8, 2015, Myanmar held elections for both houses of its parliament. The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi (shown), has won a vast majority of the seats that have so far been declared. © Candace Scharsu, Archive Photos

The NLD has been Myanmar’s main political opposition for decades. In elections held in 1990, the NLD won 60 percent of the vote and 80 percent of the seats in parliament. However, the junta (military government) that ruled the country at the time annulled the results. Prior to the election, the junta placed NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, where she spent much of the following 20 years. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent efforts to bring democracy to Myanmar. (She collected her prize in 2012, after being released from house arrest.)

Myanmar’s constitution, which was adopted in 2008 under the direction of the army, contains two clauses that will limit the NLD’s mandate. First, in a clause seemingly included specifically to keep Aung San Suu Kyi from the presidency, the constitution bars anyone from serving as president who has family members who are citizens of another country. Aung San Suu Kyi’s two sons are British, as was her late husband. Second, the constitution reserves 25 percent of the seats in each of the two parliamentary houses for members of the country’s army, which also retains control of key security and defense offices. The NLD will need to work together with the military to enact political change.

In light of the events of 1990, some NLD supporters are concerned about the government’s seeming willingness to accept this year’s election results. However, several signs in the past few days have pointed toward a peaceful transition of power. A number of government officials have made statements offering congratulations to Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD on their performance in the election. In addition, the main headline for the Nov. 12, 2015, issue of the government-owned newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar read “Welcoming the New Guard.” United States President Barack Obama congratulated Myanmar President Thein Sein for holding “a historic free and fair general election.”

Back in Time articles

• Asia (1991)
• Myanmar (1989)
• Myanmar (1990)
• Myanmar (1991)
• Myanmar (1992)
• Myanmar (1993)
• Myanmar (1994)
• Myanmar (1995)
• Myanmar (1996)
• Myanmar (1997)
• Myanmar (1998)
• Myanmar (2000)
• Myanmar (2001)
• Myanmar (2002)
• Myanmar (2003)
• Myanmar (2004)
• Myanmar (2006)
• Myanmar (2007)
• Myanmar (2009)
• Myanmar (2010)
• Myanmar (2011)
• Myanmar (2012)
• Myanmar (2013)
• Myanmar (2014)
• Nobel Prizes (1991)
• United Nations (2007)