Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi greats supporters as she arrives to attend the opening ceremony of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party’s branch office in Thar Kay Ta townwship in Yangon May 23. —  File Photo by Reuters.

NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi made her historic parliamentary debut Monday, marking a new phase in her near quarter century struggle to bring democracy to her army-dominated homeland.

Suu Kyi, whose unswerving campaigning saw her locked up for years by the former junta and earned her a Nobel Peace Prize, appeared calm as she arrived to take her seat as an elected politician for the first time in the capital Naypyidaw.

“I will try my best for the country,” she told AFP.

The democracy champion’s first taste of public office comes at an uncertain time for Myanmar after recent communal violence and a series of student arrests cast a shadow over promising changes in the former pariah state.

But it also comes amid expectations that several senior hardliners are to be replaced by reformists in an imminent cabinet reshuffle that would mark the first major change of personnel in the top echelons of government since it replaced junta rule last year.

Suu Kyi will join fellow members of her National League for Democracy (NLD), as both the party and its iconic leader transform from dissident outsiders to mainstream political players in the wake of landmark April by-elections.

The 67-year-old, one of the NLD’s 37 Lower house members of parliament, postponed her debut in the fledgling legislature last week to recover from a gruelling European tour and visit her constituency.

Fellow Lower house NLD MP May Win Myint said she was “excited” about Suu Kyi’s arrival.

“We are ready to support her,” she said.

Parliament is still dominated by the military and its political allies, but even military men appeared pleased to see the veteran activist, despite NLD plans to ease them out of the legislature by scrapping a constitutional provision granting them a quarter of seats.

“It’s good that she arrived today, we all welcome her,” said Brigadier General Wai Lin.

MPs have a number of pressing issues on the table for discussion during the current session, which began last Wednesday.

Communal violence in June between ethnic Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya, which left dozens dead and tens of thousands homeless, is on the agenda, with an ongoing state of emergency requiring parliamentary approval.

A new foreign investment law aimed at resuscitating the country’s moribund economy is also in the pipeline.

Suu Kyi on Tuesday pledged her party will join “the legislative concert”and push for greater transparency once inside parliament.

The party’s involvement in mainstream politics comes as a result of sweeping changes by a new regime, including the release of hundreds of political prisoners, liberalising sections of the nation’s battered economy and tentative ceasefires with several major armed ethnic rebel groups.

But the government came under fire from other activists last week after authorities in the country on Friday briefly detained around 20 student leaders ahead of the 50th anniversary of a brutal suppression of a student protests.

They were freed late Saturday.

Manmohan Singh(L) will hold talks with Myanmar President Thein Sein(R) as well as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during the three day trip— File Photo by Reuters

NAYPYIDAW: India’s prime minister begins a historic visit to Myanmar on Sunday, stepping up efforts to woo the resource-rich nation and seizing the chance to counter the influence of regional rival China.

Manmohan Singh will hold talks with Myanmar President Thein Sein as well as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during the three day trip, the first by an Indian premier to the Southeast Asian nation in a quarter of a century.

Energy-hungry India is eyeing Myanmar’s large oil and natural gas reserves and is eager to boost trade after a half-century of military rule left Myanmar isolated and heavily reliant on its other giant neighbour China.

New Delhi, once a staunch supporter of Suu Kyi’s struggle for democracy, changed tack in the mid-1990s as it sought closer ties, and drew international criticism for its engagement with the former junta.

But India has pointed to recent dramatic reforms under a new quasi-civilian regime, including Suu Kyi’s election to parliament in April by-elections, as a validation of its stance.

“We may have had differences but we wanted always to be able to continue a dialogue as friendly constructive partners, I think that has been vindicated,” Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said in New Delhi last week.

He said a new political environment in the country since the end of direct military rule last year “provides fresh opportunities to take our bilateral relationship to a new plane”.

Singh will meet Thein Sein on Monday in the capital Naypyidaw and then travel to the main city of Yangon for talks with Suu Kyi on Tuesday, in a move seen as a sign that India wants to reaffirm ties with the veteran activist.

Suu Kyi, who has a strong personal tie to India where she studied while her mother was ambassador there, said after she was released from house arrest in 2010 that she had been “saddened” by a lack of support from New Delhi.

“We welcome that India now has a more open relationship with us,” Nyan Win, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD) told AFP.

The Indian foreign secretary said the country hoped to sign several memorandums of understanding during the talks, which will focus on security, trade and investment.

India sees Myanmar as the springboard to a closer connection with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc as well as a key partner in counter-insurgency and economic development drives in its northeast border areas.

Its infrastructure projects in Myanmar include a port at Sittwe on the Bay of Bengal in western Rakhine State, but New Delhi’s activities in the country lag that of Beijing, which is behind a host of major developments.

Indian trade with Myanmar stood at $1.2 billion in 2010, far short of the $4.4 billion between China and Myanmar.

Vibhanshu Shekhar of the Indian Council of World Affairs in New Delhi said Myanmar was crucial in “limiting China’s growing presence in Myanmar and the Bay of Bengal”.

“For me, the real question is not whether India has fallen behind China or not. Rather what does India do from here,” Shekhar told AFP, adding that the visit could be of “great significance for the future of India’s presence” in the country.

Myanmar is already seeing a surge of investor interest from a long list of nations as reforms raise hopes that the impoverished nation could be the next big frontier market.

Singh will be accompanied by a high-powered business delegation, including telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of mobile giant Bharti Airtel.

The veteran dissident's NLD will be the main opposition force in a national parliament dominated by the military and its political allies. — Photo by Reuters

YANGON: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will take her seat in parliament for the first time on April 23, her party said on Monday, following her milestone election to political office.

The veteran dissident’s National League for Democracy (NLD), which won 43 seats in April 1 by-election, will be the main opposition force in a national parliament dominated by the military and its political allies.

NLD spokesman Nyan Win said the Nobel laureate would travel to the capital Naypyidaw by April 22 in time to attend a new session of the lower house the following day. Parliament has been in recess since March 23.

Suu Kyi’s election to political office marks the latest sweeping change in the country formerly known as Burma after decades of outright military rule ended last year.

The pro-democracy leader spent 15 of the past 22 years locked up by the former junta and was released in late 2010 just days after a controversial election won by the military’s political proxies.

Myanmar’s quasi-civilian government has announced a surprising series of reforms over the past year, such as releasing hundreds of political prisoners and welcoming the opposition back into mainstream politics.

The NLD won 37 seats in the 440-seat lower house in this month’s polls, along with four in the upper house and two in the regional chambers.

One quarter of the seats are reserved for unelected military officials.

Suu Kyi was set to make her way later Saturday to her rural constituency of Kawhmu, about two hours drive from Yangon. — Photo by AFP

YANGON: Myanmar was making final preparations on Saturday for polls seen as a test of the military-dominated regime’s reforms, in which opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is standing for the first time.

Many polling stations in the 45 constituencies spread across the country were already set up for the Sunday vote, which the Nobel laureate is contesting despite criticising it as not “genuinely free and fair”.

Suu Kyi was set to make her way later Saturday to her rural constituency of Kawhmu, about two hours drive from Yangon.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) party has fuelled an explosion in the number of T-shirt vendors in the main commercial city of Yangon.

“We must win,” states the latest design, a red shirt with Suu Kyi’s face printed in black.

A carnival atmosphere pervaded in Mingalar Taung Nyunt township, one of six constituencies up for grabs in Yangon, on the last day of campaigning Friday.

Large flatbed trucks crammed with people, from young children to the elderly, traveled through the streets blaring music, including the popular campaign song about Suu Kyi “Our mom is back”.

There was obvious glee at being able to display political allegiance freely.

Many supporters, wearing red NLD bandanas and T-shirts, had plastered their faces with stickers of the party logo – a red background with a yellow fighting peacock and a white star.

“We have done a lot of preparation for April 1. We have polling station representatives and people to provide information, because we want to know what’s going on. The result will match people’s desires. The NLD must win,” local NLD candidate Phyu Phyu Thin told AFP.

NLD supporters on Saturday erected a giant LED screen outside the party headquarters in Yangon to broadcast the results as they come in.

In the city’s Mayangone constituency, officials set out tables and labeled ballot boxes at a polling station in a high school.

“Authorities sent us a blueprint of how to prepare the polling station and we have laid it out exactly as they instructed,” said school teacher Myint Ngwe, who was in charge of the preparations.

Suu Kyi on Friday renewed complaints of irregularities in the run up to the by-elections, including vandalism of party posters and “intimidation”.

But the 66-year-old, who was under house arrest during elections in 1990 and 2010, said she did not regret standing for parliament because the polls had boosted people’s interest in politics after decades of outright military rule ended last year.

The NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990 but the junta never allowed it to take office. The party also boycotted the 2010 polls that swept the army’s political proxies to power and were marred by complaints of cheating and intimidation.

Experts believe the regime wants the pro-democracy leader to win a seat in parliament to burnish its reform credentials and encourage an end to Western sanctions.

The NLD is contesting 44 seats and estimates vary as to how many it could win.

Thiha Saw of local weekly news journal Open News said he expected the party to win a little over 50 percent of the available seats. But bookies have predicted 32 seats for the NLD from betting – technically illegal in Myanmar — on the results.

The number of seats at stake is not enough to threaten the military-backed ruling party’s overwhelming majority in parliament but Suu Kyi described the vote as “a step towards step one in democracy”.

Since taking office a year ago, President Thein Sein has carried out reforms including releasing hundreds of political prisoners, easing media restrictions and welcoming the opposition back into mainstream politics.

The government has for the first time invited teams of foreign observers and journalists to witness the elections.

A total of 160 candidates from 17 parties, including six new to the political stage, are contesting the polls.

Aung San Suu Kyi plans to run in upcoming by-elections, her spokesman said on Monday. - Photo by AFP

YANGON: Myanmar’s democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi plans to run in upcoming by-elections, her spokesman said on Monday, days after her party decided to rejoin the official political arena.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) move Friday to end its boycott of the political process came on the same day the military-dominated government received a seal of approval from Washington for a string of nascent reforms.

“Daw Suu said she intends to take part in the election,” Nyan Win, spokesman for the NLD, told AFP.

Daw is a term of respect in Myanmar.

Suu Kyi hinted that she would stand for office at a meeting of party delegates on day, when they decided to re-register as a political party and contest elections after boycotting last year’s vote – Myanmar’s first in 20 years.

There are 48 parliamentary seats available but no polling dates have been set for by-elections.

After speaking directly to Nobel laureate Suu Kyi for the first time, in a call from Air Force One, US President Barack Obama said Hillary Clinton would next month become the first US secretary of state to visit Myanmar for 50 years.

Attending an Asian summit in Indonesia, Obama said Clinton’s December 1-2 trip was designed to stoke “flickers” of democratic reform in a country that for decades has been blighted by military rule and international isolation.

The NLD won a landslide victory in polls in 1990 but the then-ruling junta never allowed the party to take power.

Suu Kyi, although a figurehead for the campaign, was under house arrest at the time.

Myanmar’s next election was not held until November last year, and the NLD boycotted it – mainly because of rules that would have forced it to expel imprisoned members.

Suu Kyi was again under house arrest.

Although the election was widely criticised as a sham, Myanmar’s military rulers gave way to a nominally civilian administration which released Suu Kyi from years in detention and has since made a surprising series of conciliatory gestures.

In developments Suu Kyi has described as “encouraging”, it has passed a law giving workers the right to strike, stopped work on an unpopular mega dam, released about 200 political prisoners and held direct talks with Suu Kyi.

As a reward for such moves, Myanmar last week won Southeast Asia’s approval to chair the regional bloc in 2014 – despite some concerns that such a diplomatic prize was premature.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday that he would also visit Myanmar as soon as possible to encourage the reforms.

Analysts say the return of the NLD would add to the legitimacy of the army-backed government, which is seeking to end its global isolation – but would also increase the relevance of the popular but long-excluded Suu Kyi.

After spending 15 of the past 22 years in detention, the 66-year-old told her party on Friday that they should contest all the seats available in by-elections and had implied that she would run herself.

“Some people are worried that taking part could harm my dignity.

Frankly, if you do politics, you should not be thinking about your dignity,” she said.