Hundreds of thousands attend Suu Kyi charter rally

Hundreds of thousands of people have attended National League for Democracy’s chairperson Aung San Suu Kyi’s public rally on amending Section 436 of the 2008 Constitution held in Pakokku, Magway Region on Saturday.

This is the last public rally for charter change and residents from not only Pakokku but also from other areas of Magway Region, Mandalay Region, and Sagaing Region came to attend it.

Besides Suu Kyi, NLD’s central executive member Win Myint also delivered a speech on constitutional amendment during the rally.

In her speech, Suu Kyi said the public will decide the value of Parliament based on whether it is affected by their desires.

She explained the NLD wants to amend the constitution not because it intends to win in the 2015 Election, but for the future of the next generations.

According to the slogan of the Parliament, the public’s desire is the Parliament’s desire and the public’s voice is the Parliament’s voice so the public needs to monitor how effective their desires can be on the Parliament, according to her.

While Suu Kyi admitted that Union Parliament Speaker Thura Shwe Mann was correct in saying that the public’s desires initiated by the campaign to amend Section 436 cannot influence the parliamentary committee, she also said the country needs to wait to see how influential the public’ desires can be on the Parliament.

“There is an issue that all of our citizens need to monitor. Only the public can observe and decide how effective their desires can be on the Parliament. This decision will assess the value of the Parliament. That’s why the Parliament needs to discuss openly when discussing about amending the Constitution in order for the all the public to know. I want to say that each MP selected by our citizens needs to bravely speaks out his or her stand to let the constituency know,” said Suu Kyi.

She continued that if the government actually pays respect to citizens, they have to accept the citizens’ authority and if they are carrying out democracy, they have to take the citizens as a priority and accept their decision and value their desire.

She also added that the parents and elders should not forbid young people’s interest in political affairs because having an interest in political affairs is not a dangerous thing but the real risky thing is younger generations not understanding about politics and so, elders should encourage young people to have higher political views.

Moreover, those who have been saying that the citizens still do not deserve democracy are underestimating the citizens and those who do not want the constitution to be reformed are just being not brave or uneducated or having no goodwill on the citizens, she apportioned.

If the constitution can be amended, the influence of military over the parliament would be reduced and for that, the military personnel should also involve in signing the petition bravely, she encouraged.

Then, she said that for future and democracy-stability of the nation, a good relationship is needed not only between races but also among people from the military and the civilians. She added that when the military take inappropriate advantage, its dignity is lost and also the citizens suffer so, if the military personnel change themselves with their own desire, they would get trust and respect from the citizens.

Regarding the election, obtaining only freedom to vote will not make the election a fair one, and the events occurred before the election must also be considered and if the constitution is not reformed, the coming elections will not have justice, she stated.

In addition to the rally on constitutional amendment, she visited three monasteries and Bawdi Mantine monastery in Pakokku Town and donated Warso robes to the monks. After that, she met with town-elders and NLD executive members in Magway Region.