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Monday 29 Feb 2016 - 12:47 Makkah mean time-20-5-1437
Yangon, (IINA) - Buddhist nationalists in Myanmar have staged demonstration on Sunday calling on authorities not to amend or postpone an article of the constitution, which bars election victor Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming the country’s next president, Anadolu Agency reported.
Many Buddhist monks were among the 600-person Myanmar National Affairs Network demonstration, which marched in the former capital city of Yangon.
Most of the marchers wore white T-Shirts emblazoned with a bright red 59, and the slogan: “Section 59 of the Constitution is untouchable. It must be protected from national security angle".
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won the November 8 election by a landslide, securing the position of choosing the new president who will rule Myanmar for the next five years.
However, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate is blocked from taking the post under Article 59(f) of the military-draft constitution that many suspect is aimed solely at her, which bars anyone with foreign relatives from becoming president, Suu Kyi’s two sons are British citizens.
NLD lawmakers have said they plan to submit a proposal to suspend article 59 (f) to parliament.
One of the demonstration's organizers told Anadolu Agency on Sunday that those attending would fight to stop Suu Kyi taking up the position. “We will constantly oppose any effort to postpone or amend the section 59 of the Constitution for an individual person or for an organization”, said Win Ko Ko Lat.
“We believe this section of the constitution protects our country from being influenced by foreign countries... We [the nationalist activists] will never accept such effort."
The demonstrators urged parliament, which is dominated by Suu Kyi’s party, not to allow any effort to succeed.
The banning clause can be suspended if a two-third majority in the parliament voted to the effect.
It is noteworthy that NLD holds around 60 percent of the parliament seats while the military holds around 25 percent.
According to the army-run Myawaddy newspaper, the military made it clear that it considers any change unconstitutional.
“If NLD makes such effort by force, there is probably a military coup”, demonstration organizer Win Ko Ko Lat told Anadolu Agency.
Among Sunday's marchers were around a dozen monks from Buddhist nationalist hardline group ‘Ma Ba Tha’, also known as the Organization for the Protection of Race and Religion. However, not all members were in agreement.
“I think postponement of 59 (f) is not a big threat to country”, prominent Ma Ba Tha monk Pamaukkha told Anadolu Agency by phone on Sunday.
“Suu Kyi deserves the post. I think there is a way Suu Kyi can be elected as the country’s next president”, he added.
Pamaukkha warned, however, that Ma Ba Tha would never allow Suu Kyi to change a set of controversial laws seen to be aimed at the country’s Muslim population.
“I want to warn NLD not to touch the 1982 Citizenship Law and four Race and Religion Laws”, he underlined.
Under pressure from the Ma Ba Tha, the outgoing government led by President Thein Sein enacted four controversial Race and Religion Protection Laws.
The laws were received with outrage by the international community as they are widely viewed as a tool to suppress the country’s minority groups, in particular around one million Muslim Rohingya interned in camps in western Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state.
AG/IINA
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