Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday welcomed Thailand's election outcome, which paves the way for Yingluck Shinawatra to become the country's first female prime minister. "I like that she's a woman but the most important thing is the relationship between the two nations and our people," Suu Kyi told reporters on the second day of her visit to the ancient temple city of Bagan in central Myanmar.
“We also have to welcome the government democratically elected by the people," she said, also expressing hopes that ties with neighbouring Thailand would remain strong under 44-year-old Yingluck's administration.
Yingluck's Puea Thai party, allied to her brother Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a coup five years ago, stormed to a majority victory in Sunday's vote, taking a majority of the seats in Thailand's lower house.
While Suu Kyi's own opposition party won a landslide election in Myanmar in 1990, the military junta never allowed it to take power, and she has spent much of the last two decades in jail or under house arrest.
The 66-year-old Nobel peace laureate was sidelined in the first election to be held since then, in November last year, and her party was disbanded by the generals for boycotting the vote.
The junta's political proxies claimed an overwhelming victory in the poll, which was marred by widespread complaints of cheating and intimidation.
Suu Kyi is on her first trip outside Yangon since being freed from years of house arrest a few days after the election and politics is not on the agenda.
But the high-profile vacation is seen as test of her ability to travel freely around the country, albeit under the watchful eyes of the regime.
No comments:
Post a Comment