Thursday, 05 January 2012 21:24 Mizzima News
(Mizzima) – A political adviser to Burma’s president said that Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party could one day rule the country, according to an article in The Guardian newspaper. His remarks came during the visit of British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who is meeting with Burmese leaders.
“They can be the ruling party one day,” Nay Zin Latt, the personal political adviser of President Thein Sein, told the newspaper. He was referring to Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which will contest for seats in Parliament in the by-election on April 1.
His comments were by far the most outspoken declarations of support for change in Burma, which put in place an elected Parliament early last year amid widespread allegations of election rigging.
Latt, the presidential aide, said change in Burma was “genuine and authentic” but “obviously reversible.”
“The West wants us to be a democratic country. Politically they will get a benefit from this because we will be part of the democratic world and the West wants to contain China,” Latt told the newspaper.
He promised political prisoners would eventually be freed “in the future,” but said that any release would be gradual. Burma just instituted a commutation of prisoners’ sentences, but it affected only 34 political prisoners, a description that Burmese officials refuse to use.
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