THOUSANDS waited for hours under a blazing sun on the football field in Taungup, a small town near the Bay of Bengal in Rakhine state in Myanmar’s west. Most wore the red T-shirts of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and waved flags emblazoned with the party’s star-and-peacock symbol (pictured). One teenager carried a rose, intending to present it “to my leader, to my president”. When Aung San Suu Kyi’s four-wheel drive bumped into view, the crowd chanted “Maa Suu!”—Mother Suu.
On the face of it, the campaigning across Myanmar ahead of a general election on November 8th might seem nothing exceptional. Yet the scene in Taungup would have been unthinkable five years ago—not least because the NLD was banned, Miss Suu Kyi was under house arrest and a downtrodden people were under the army’s boot. Today Miss Suu Kyi sits in parliament. Her NLD is set to reap the most votes in the election. To many in the West, it looks like a happy end to Myanmar’s long and dark journey. In fact, the election is but one stepping stone to an uncertain future. Many questions remain unanswered, including whether the Burmese can pull themselves out of...Continue reading
from Asia http://ift.tt/20deP1d
EmoticonEmoticon