Army is right behind me on reforms, insists Burma’s president

BURMA’s president Thein Sein has said his government will build on the sweeping reforms it began last year and will work hard to convince sceptics it is truly committed to democratic change.

His speech to parliament yesterday came almost a year after he took office as head of a nominally civilian government that replaced a long-ruling military junta but which remains dominated by retired military men following elections widely regarded as neither free nor fair.

Since then, Thein Sein has overseen a wave of dramatic change that has shocked even some of the Asian nation’s fiercest critics. Those changes include freeing political prisoners, signing ceasefires with rebel groups, easing restrictions on the press and opening a dialogue with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi after her release from house arrest. “There are many more steps to be taken,” Thein Sein told MPs in the capital, Naypyitaw. “We have to continue to work hard, as there are many people within and outside the country who are sceptical and suspicious of our government.”

He said those steps include strengthening the rule of law, boosting business and improving Burma’s basic infrastructure, which lags far behind much of the rest of Asia.

The army ruled Burma with an iron fist for nearly half a century, turning it into a pariah state while jailing thousands of critics and confining Ms Suu Kyi to 15 years of house arrest.

Thein Sein, who was the junta’s prime minister, seemed to address concerns that the military was not fully behind him.

He said: “There is no hard-liners camp or soft-liners camp in government. Except for some difference in administration, we are implementing our duties in strict adherence with policy.”