International News

YANGON, (APP/AFP) – Myanmar military MPs on
Friday said a plan to bolster Aung San Suu Kyi’s power with a special advisory role was unconstitutional, as the new civilian government tussled with the army just days after taking office.
The Southeast Asian nation was dominated by the military for more than half a century until Wednesday when Suu Kyi and her pro-democracy party took power.
The Nobel laureate, whose party secured a landslide election win in
November, has vowed to rule the country despite a constitutional block on her becoming president.
In a surprise early act of parliamentary business by the new government, Suu Kyi’s party proposed a bill to grant her a special “state counsellor” position.
If passed it would give the 70-year-old a steering role over parliament, buttressed by the four ministerial posts she already holds in the new cabinet.
In a sign of early turbulence between her party and the still hugely
influential army, military MPs called the move unconstitutional in an upper
house debate Friday that saw the bill pass its first legislative hurdle.
Colonel Myint Swe raised fears the plan would place the “president and the advisor at the same level”.