Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi begins talks with former high ranking military opponents

After her party's landslide victory in the recently held parliamentary elections in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi has commenced talks with her military foes for the smooth transition of the government. The military had ignored similar election results in 1990 when the National League for Democracy had emerged victorious.

Suu Kyi, who heads the National League for Democracy (NLD), met the current parliamentary speaker Shwe Mann, in the capital city of Naypyidaw on 15 November. "She congratulated me on accepting the [election] results swiftly," Mann, who until last year was the head of the ruling USDP party, was quoted as saying by Voice of America.

Later this week, Suu Kyi is expected to hold talks with military leader General Min Aung Hlaing and outgoing President Thein Sein. Hlaing and Sein have both said that they will honour the results of the 8 November parliamentary elections. However, history shows otherwise with the military dictatorship unwilling to let go of power. Myanmar was ruled by military dictators for five decades until the junta dissolved itself in 2010.

Moreover, the country's military leadership was now worried about Suu Kyi appointing a proxy president, while she would remain above the presidency. Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under house arrest for her pro-democracy activism, could not be nominated for president as the military-drafted constitution disallows her party from doing so, because her two sons and her late husband are British. While under the same constitution, the army chief, who will be in control of the security forces, will appoint the defence, border affairs and the interior ministers as well as 25% of the MPs.

The NLD chief will be attending the legislative session on Monday, where the old lawmaking body dominated by President Thein Sein's military-backed ruling party will pass several laws and a new budget. The old law-making body would continue as the caretaker legislature until January.