Myanmar's 'Sister Suu' Faces Long Odds, but a Great Opportunity

The landslide victory by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the 8 November 2015 Myanmar election, after decades of Suu Kyi held under house arrest, marks among the world’s most extraordinary politics turnabouts.

However, Suu Kyi’s political ascendancy is much less unique in Asia than it may at first appear. Because the daughter of the country’s independence leader Aung San, who was assassinated within 1947, she is only one of several prominent female dynasts — the daughters, wives or widows of ‘martyred’ man leaders — to lead major democratic opposition movements across Asia after which assume political power. Additional prominent examples are Corazon D Aquino in the Philippines, Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, Megawati Sukarnoputri in Indonesia, as well as Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh.

So why have so many dynastic female leaders emerged during democratic struggles in the region? At first glance, the success of women in politics may seem surprising because Myanmar like many other Asian countries is often seen to be patriarchal as well as paternalistic.

Although women played prominent political roles in pre-colonial times and through the Burmese nationalist struggle, military guideline in Myanmar after 1962 significantly reduced female participation in politics.

Many women in Myanmar also lack adequate employment opportunities and have inadequate access to health care as well as education. Myanmar ranks relatively low (at 150 out of 187 countries) in the most recent Gender-related Development Index (GDI) rankings of the United Nations Development Programme.

Traditional religious practice is also normally an obstacle for the advancement of women. In Myanmar, the discriminatory race and religion bills passed in 2015, which force ladies (but not men) to seek permission to marry someone from a different faith and discipline adultery, thus potentially risking women who lodge a rape accusation — are one recent instance.

Yet, along with Myanmar, predominantly Buddhist countries for example Sri Lanka and Thailand have also had female dynastic leaders. Likewise, there have been female dynastic leaders in the Christian Belgium and, perhaps most surprising many predominantly Islamic countries in Asia have had women because opposition leaders who later became heads of government.

What then explains the success of female political figures in Asia?

The case associated with Aung San Suu Kyi and other dynastic female leaders within Asia shows that gender stereotyping can sometimes prove to be a political also in a crisis situation. As a lady Suu Kyi could be portrayed as non-political — the virtuous alternative to the country’s damaged, Machiavellian military leaders that have dominated since the 1988 anti-military protests.

Women also have, perhaps counterintuitively benefited from their connection to the family. Suu Kyi, like other dynastic female leaders, promised to detox the soiled public realm with private, familial virtue. Often, Suu Kyi supporters call the woman’s ‘sister Suu’. Other female frontrunners have similarly been called ‘aunts’ or ‘mothers’. Suu Kyi’s courage when confronted with repression, tenaciousness over decades associated with opposition and eloquence in criticising army rule further increased this particular ‘moral capital’.

The choice of Suu Kyi as opposition leader was also advantageous because she acquired what the German born sociologist Max Weber called ‘inherited charisma’. A male dynast successor is more likely to be judged on his own merits, making it more difficult for him to end up with the mantle of charisma from a father or sibling to whom he may be compared unfavourably. However, a widow, wife or even daughter is often seen to better embody their husbands’, or fathers’ charisma.

Suu Kyi’s ‘national inheritance’ enabled her to keep the military routine on the defensive for decades.

The types of female dynastic leaders in power elsewhere in Asia additionally points to some particular issues that Suu Kyi may face in the near future. Man opponents are likely to try to depict her as a ‘weak woman’. The NLD coalition may face fragmentation after she leaves the political picture unless she is able to adequately institutionalise her legacy. At least parts of the military may attempt to challenge her hold on power, as they did Corazon Aquino’s in the Philippines or Benazir Bhutto’s within Pakistan.

Suu Kyi will also have to face up to the challenge of ethnic and religious divisions in Myanmar. During Myanmar’s recent political liberalisation and the election campaign, ethno-chauvinist forces emerged, especially among hardline Buddhist monks who fanned hate of the Rohingya minority and utilized anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Many human rights activists possess criticised Suu Kyi for not speaking up to protect the Rohingya and for not running a single Muslim candidate around the NLD slate. The NLD’s technique has been to keep the focus on their own democratic opposition to years of military rule, while largely ignoring this religious strife. Using the election won and energy tantalisingly close, it remains as to whether Aung San Suu Kyi becomes more outspoken on injustices perpetrated from the Rohingya or takes action to counter general anti-Muslim sentiments.

It is still uncertain whether Suu Kyi can actually translate the NLD’s electoral victory into democratic civilian rule after greater than a half century of military dictatorship. Nevertheless, to have gotten this far against very long odds is in large part due to the qualities of ethical leadership she inherited and further built upon as a female dynastic leader.

Why dynastic female leaders earn elections in Asia is republished along with permission from East Asian countries Forum