Aung San Suu Kyi takes parliamentary seat
Naypyitaw - Myanmar democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyiassumed her seat in parliament Monday in a low-key entry intomainstream politics.
"I've just come to attend for my first day, and I cannot give youany comments now," Suu Kyi told reporters as she took her seat,number G22, in Myanmar's lower house for the first time.
Suu Kyi moved Sunday with her dog into a rented bungalow inNaypyitaw, which became Myanmar's capital in 2005. It is located 350kilometres north of Yangon, the former capital, where Suu Kyi spent atotal of 15 years under house arrest in her family compound under theformer military junta.
Suu Kyi moved Sunday with her dog into a rented bungalow inNaypyitaw, which became Myanmar's capital in 2005. It is located 350kilometres north of Yangon, the former capital, where Suu Kyi spent atotal of 15 years under house arrest in her family compound under theformer military junta.
Suu Kyi, 67, was originally scheduled to take up her legislativeduties Wednesday when the new session of parliament opened butpostponed her attendance by several days, citing exhaustion after herfive-nation European tour last month.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was sworn in as a member ofParliament in May, weeks after she and 42 members of her NationalLeague for Democracy (NLD) party won seats in April 1 by-elections.
Although long described as Myanmar's opposition leader, Suu Kyihas yet to officially assume that title in parliament.
"It's up to her to decide how to proceed," said Kwin Maung Swe,leader of the National League Force, a party that broke away from theNLD. "We are happy to join forces with her, but Suu Kyi hasn'tresponded to our approaches yet." Kwin Maung Swe's party spun off from the NLD to contest theNovember 2010 general elections, which Suu Kyi's party boycotted. Itushered in a civilian, albeit pro-military, government, ending thereign of juntas condemned for their human rights abuses.
Suu Kyi and the NLD agreed to run in the by-elections, in whichthey won 43 out of 45 seats after President Thein Sein, a formergeneral, had opened a political dialogue in mid-2011 with Suu Kyi.
The former political prisoner travelled abroad for the first timein two decades at the end of May to Thailand and then went in June toEurope, where she was feted by world leaders and celebrities inSwitzerland, Norway, Ireland, Britain and France.
