Suu Kyi: Constitution does not conform with 'democratic norms'

From Kocha Olarn, CNN March 14, 2012 -- Updated 1736 GMT (0136 HKT)    ...  


Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) -- Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmarese opposition leader, said her country's present constitution "does not conform" with democratic norms and it should be changed where needed.

Myanmar state television broadcast for the first time an election campaign speech by the pro-democracy leader, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was under house arrest for years until she was freed more than a year ago.

Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy, will participate in by-elections on April 1 after boycotting previous elections. She has been crisscrossing the country to attend election rallies.

 

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi speaks at National League for Democracy party headquarters in Yangon in November.

In her speech, she decried restricting freedom of speech and choice and fostering fear and instability in people's lives. She called for respect of the rule of law.

"As long as freedom of movement and human rights are not fully achieved," democracy will not prevail, she said.

She called for improvements in education, health care, agriculture and the lives of workers and younger people.

Suu Kyi has said that she would change the configuration of the parliament in which 25% of seats help the military establishment. She cited the presence of those nonelected officials in Wednesday's speech.

The country's election commission removed a passage from her speech because it didn't conform with current election law, Suu Kyi told a freelance reporter for CNN.

Earlier, Nyan Win, a National League for Democracy spokesman, said the passage that was removed in advance criticized the previous situation in Myanmar concerning freedom of speech and access to information.

The international community has applauded recent political reforms in Myanmar, also known as Burma, long secluded from the rest of the world after a military junta grabbed power in 1962. The generals have begun loosening their grip after international sanctions and criticism over their regime's human rights record.

The authorities released Suu Kyi from house arrest in November 2010. She registered last month to run for a parliamentary seat in Kawhmu after the regime agreed to negotiate with an ethnic rebel group and pardoned hundreds of political prisoners.

Her televised speech Wednesday is a result of Myanmar's electoral law, which requires that each political party receive appropriate time to broadcast its manifesto.

The National League for Democracy submitted candidates for all 47 seats up for grabs in the April by-elections.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/14/world/asia/myanmar-elections/