Myanmar Military Resists Suu Kyi's Bid for Greater Power

YANGON—Myanmar's military is opposing the ruling party's attempt to create a top new role in government for its leader Aung San Suu Kyi, setting up a potential clash with the country's powerful generals.

Ms. Suu Kyi is constitutionally barred from becoming president but has vowed to run the government through a trusted confidant after her party's election victory over the military last year.

A bill that lawmakers appear set to pass this week would give Ms. Suu Kyi a more formal leadership position akin to a prime ministerial role. On Monday, she made room to take the new role by yielding two ministerial positions while retaining two others, including foreign affairs.

The bill has set up the first open test between Ms. Suu Kyi's parliamentary majority and the military-aligned bloc. If more than 10% of lawmakers disagree on the bill's constitutionality it goes to a separate tribunal. That tribunal, handpicked by Ms. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, has legal jurisdiction over constitutional decisions.

But the constitution also says the military is responsible for safeguarding it, leaving a gray zone as to who actually has the final say over constitutional decisions and creating the potential for conflict.

The bill passed the upper house of parliament on Friday with 137 votes for, 70 against and 2 abstentions. The lower house is expected to pass it with similar margins this week.

The military, whose quarter of parliamentary seats allows it to block constitutional changes, calls the move illegal.

"Only if the bill is in line with the constitution, then we will support it," Maung Maung, a military lawmaker, said Monday in Parliament. Hla Win Aung, another military lawmaker, objected to Ms. Suu Kyi's being directly named in the bill, which he said was "completely unprecedented" and "not in line with the law."

The latest jousting began when the government, after being sworn in last week, introduced a plan for Ms. Suu Kyi to assume a new title of "state counselor" to advise the state "in the citizens' interest." The role, in which she would have her own budget, would help ensure that Myanmar flourishes as a multiparty democracy, the bill says.

It is the only way to ensure that Ms. Suu Kyi can overcome the constitutional prohibition and "carry out all the appropriate activities she needs to do in order to lead," said Nyan Win, a party spokesman.

The military has opposed her previous attempts to amend the constitution—which bars citizens like herself with close foreign relatives from assuming the presidency. Instead, she has tried to assert her leadership through her dominant party and her cabinet portfolios. The presidency is the highest power in the land and obvious attempts by Ms. Suu Kyi to control it risk being deemed illegal.

The continued focus on Ms. Suu Kyi's title and role could be counterproductive to establishing cordial ties with the military.

"One would think the NLD would get down to the business of running the government first, and try at some later stage only once trust has been built with the armed forces, to revise the rules of the game," said Romain Caillaud, a senior director at FTI Consulting who specializes in Myanmar.

The military warns that it can complicate the NLD's efforts to govern, given its control over the ministries of defense, border affairs and home affairs and its role in negotiating peace with ethnic rebel groups.

"What we see is a government forming without any checks and balances or transparency in decision-making and we must point this out and raise all the concerns," said a former general who is close to the military leadership. The military is "collecting all these issues together" and will decide on responses, said the former general.

Write to Shibani Mahtani at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 04, 2016 12:55 ET (16:55 GMT)

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