Myanmar is a story just waiting for a fairytale ending. The beautiful daughter of an assassinated national hero faces down evil generals during years of cruel incarceration. For decades, the generals grind the country into the ground, trashing the economy and fighting ethnic minorities in the wild border regions. Finally, the generals relent. They release “the Lady” and begin a remarkable transition to democracy. Political prisoners are set free. The press is unshackled. Western sanctions are lifted. Ceasefires break out throughout the land. All that remains is for the military to return definitively to barracks and allow Aung San Suu Kyi, the princess of this tale, to take up her rightful position as leader of a democratic, peaceful and prosperous country. It is so close you can almost touch it.
Yet it is not to be. Three years after the start of the transition, and less than 18 months before elections that would make Ms Suu Kyi president, it is already apparent that the ending cannot be quite so happy. There are at least three problems with the fairytale plot.
First, it looks unlikely that Ms Suu Kyi will become president – at least not right after next December when elections are due to take place. Last month, a parliamentary committee voted against changing the constitution, which bars anyone from the presidency whose spouse or children are foreign nationals. Ms Suu Kyi’s two sons are British citizens.
