Myanmar’s NLD victory won't improve Rohingya Muslims' future

From the perspective of the Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, this election has been the least democratic of any election and is no more a signal of progress in their struggle for justice, says an international lawyer.

Barry Grossman made his remarks in a phone interview with Press TV while commenting on Myanmar’s general elections that ended with victory for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).

The acting chairman of Myanmar’s ruling Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP) conceded defeat in parliamentary elections. In an interview with Reuters, Htay Oo said he accepts the results of the country’s first free national elections in 25 years.

“Myanmar’s pseudo constitution reserves 25% of seats in the legislature for the military. How any of this can be viewed as a democracy no matter how much Washington would like to claim that there has been progress in Mynamar” said the political commentator.

“For the first time since 1936, Muslims were excluded as a class from participating in this glorified straw poll and it appears that they will have no representatives in the legislature despite comprising some 4% of the population. The military controlled  ruling party led by President Thein Sein also made it clear even before the election was held that it would not obey National League for Democracy party leader Aung San Suu Kyi if she attempts to govern above an elected president,” he added.

Even if Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate, receives the majority of the parliament seats, she cannot assume the position of presidency as she is barred under the constitution, which was written by the military junta.

However, Suu Kyi has said she would be the leading force behind the president. Despite the defeat, the ruling military junta will still retain considerable power in the country.

“There has been no reason whatsoever to assume that Aung San Suu Kyi is any less hostile to Myanmar’s indigenous Muslims than the military-backed government led by President Thein Sein,” Grossman noted.

He accused Myanmar’s Buddhist majority of treating the country’s Muslims in a manner similar to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

“All I can say is that any country which continues to uphold an archaic decree made by a brutal military dictatorship that revokes the citizenship of more than a million souls only because they are Muslims and any country with a constitution that guarantees the military will take 25% of all legislative seats regardless of voter preferences, cannot be seen as being anything other than what it is – a racist society governed by a brutal privileged elite,” He concluded.

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