Myanmar: Suu Kyi ready to step down if people are unhappy

Myanmar’s de-facto leader, former democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, in a televised speech on March 30 on occasion of the one-year anniversary of the installation of her government, for the first time acknowledged disappointment over the state of the country.

She said she was prepared to step down if people are dissatisfied with her leadership.

“When I joined politics, I said I promise one thing: that I will do my best’. That’s all. I can’t do better than that,” Suu Kyi said.

“So, if you all 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,” she added.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy took power last year amid high expectations after a landslide election victory which ended five decades of military rule in the impoverished country. But while her government has started enacting major reforms, many believe its performance has fallen short of the high expectations.

Economic growth has not provided many benefits to the country’s poor majority, while the situation in the rebellious northeast  with its ethnic minorities seems to be worse than ever.

Suu Kyi claimed that the government was “looking forward to a better future for the people,” but during the last year “hard decisions on controversial issues” had to be made.

For example, Suu Kyi keeps sticking to her government’s stance that Myanmar will not accept an international investigating commission to look into communal tensions in the western state of Rakhine, where the Muslim Rohingya minority faces severe discrimination and what the United Nations calls major human rights violations during army sweeps seeking insurgents.

“The United Nation’s Human Rights Council made a decision regarding Rakhine state affairs to which we opposed,” she said, adding that “it is neither disrespect nor as a sign of unfriendliness towards members of the UN but because it wasn’t right for our country.”

At the end of her speech, the Nobel Price appealed for more time amid the many problems facing the country as reforming a country shackled by 50 years of military rule can’t be fast-tracked.

 

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