Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD Convenes for the First Time

It was a development that took decades to happen. On Friday, Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Burma’s NLD (National League for Democracy), has brought together over 900 members for a very important task. For the first time since the party became recognized as Burma’s opposition, the political party is convening its first ever congress.

And, while there is no doubt that Aung San Suu Kyi had been able to lead the party towards great success, to borrow her own words, the NLD is in dire need of new blood to strengthen and reinvigorate it.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s Legacy

She was born in 1945. Aung San, her father, is hailed as Burma’s independence hero. She never got to know him well though, because he was a victim of an assassination when she was two years old. The young Suu Kyi was forced to leave the country and study elsewhere. She only came back to Burma to take care of her dying mother in 1988.

By this time Burma was fraught with violence and civil unrest. She found herself involved in the country’s democratic uprising. When the NLD was formed in September 24, 1988, she was appointed the party’s general secretary. She campaigned hard for freedom and democracy, which added pressure to the current administration to call for a general election in 1990.

However, Burma’s then oppressive government refused to acknowledge the party and never allowed her to assume office. This led to her arrest and imprisonment for almost two whole decades.

Aung San Suu Kyi Comes Full Circle

The election of leaders is an important milestone for a political party said to have over 1 million members across the country. The NLD was first founded in 1988 as the country’s new pro-democracy party. Its formation came at the heels of a bloody military coup, which was preceded by a bloodbath that left more than 5,000 people dead.

Friday’s gathering at the country’s capital, Yangon, can be considered a milestone in terms of Myanmar’s political reforms. Analysts perceive the fact that the party members are allowed to convene out in the open as a step in the right direction.

Besides electing new leaders, the NLD is bent on repositioning itself as a strong and formidable opposition with a good chance of winning in the 2015 national elections. The party also hopes to add new members, and not just elderly statesmen, but younger politicians with a fresher take at leadership and more open political views.