• Tuesday, April 24, 2012
• Inter Press Service

(IPS/Al Jazeera) - Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's pro-democracy leader, and newly elected MPs from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party have refused to attend the opening session of parliament over a dispute regarding the wording of the parliamentary oath.

Suu Kyi and other members of her party refused to travel to the capital Naypyidaw to enter parliament on Monday. The NLD wants the phrasing in the politicians' oath changed from 'safeguard the constitution' to 'respect the constitution'. Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay, reporting from Naypyidaw, said: 'The National League of Democracy is not calling it a boycott, although it is really exactly that.

'They have not turned up to the parliamentary sessions today. They have not even made the trip from the former capital Yangon to Naypyidaw. 'We have had one session already of the Upper House and there was no sign of NLD. The issue of the boycott was not even on the official agenda of the Upper House.'

The NLD has petitioned the constitutional court to change the oath, and Suu Kyi has written to Thein Sein, Myanmar's president, asking him to reword the vow of allegiance. Suu Kyi, who spent much of the past two decades locked up by the country's military leaders, campaigned in by-elections on a pledge to amend the country's constitution, which was drawn up the country's former government.

Her party won 43 out of 45 seats in the historic by- elections that gave the Nobel Laureate her first seat in parliament. Sein said on Monday during a five-day visit to Japan that he had no plans to change the oath. The president told reporters in Tokyo he would like to 'welcome' Suu Kyi to parliament, but that it was up to her whether or not she took up the seat.

Analysts say the Myanmar president needs the opposition in the parliament, dominated by the military-backed party, to get international legitimacy. Myanmar's military rulers ceded power to a quasi-civilian government after a November 2010 election marred by opposition complaints of rigging, and won by a party set up by the military.

The new government headed by Sein has released hundreds of political prisoners and introduced a wave of reforms including loosening media controls, allowing trade unions and protests, talks with ethnic minority rebels and sweeping economic changes.

© Inter Press Service (2012) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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