Too early to say if democracy in Burma is irreversible: Suu Kyi to NDTV

Yangon: Myanmar's charismatic leader Aung Saan Suu Kyi, who claimed her party's landslide victory in the country's historic elections, hopes that democracy will win.

"It is too early to say if democracy in Burma (Myanmar) is irreversible," she told NDTV today.

The people of Myanmar got their first taste of democracy in two decades on Sunday when they elected popular the Opposition leader to a seat in Parliament, according to her party. Suu Kyi hailed it as a "victory of the people".

Despite Suu Kyi's larger-than-life presence in Myanmar the victory represents the first time she's held office, having remained under house arrest during previous marred general elections in 2010 and 1990.

Suu Kyi's role in a reforming Myanmar will be no less essential after sweeping the board in Sunday's historic by-elections. Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won all 44 seats it contested, claimed the party on Monday, in the 664-seat Parliament still dominated by the military and the rival party it created.

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But after two decades in opposition, much of it spent as a prisoner of the former junta, Suu Kyi now faces a slew of unfamiliar challenges. She must find her place in a perhaps hostile Lower House while nurturing her crucial relationship with reformist President Thein Sein and managing the expectations of a nation impatient for change after decades of isolation, poverty and military misrule.

Just 17 months ago, Suu Kyi was under house arrest and her party outlawed. Sometimes portrayed as stubborn and unrealistic, her rapid journey from prisoner to parliamentarian is the result of a bold and pragmatic engagement with President Thein Sein that remains critical to Myanmar's reform process.

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