MYANMAR – Myanmar’s lawmakers Tuesday elected a close aide and longtime friend of Aung San Suu Kyi to become the country’s first civilian president in decades, a historic moment for the formerly junta-run nation.

Htin Kyaw, 69, won 360 of 652 votes cast by Myanmar’s two legislative chambers, paving the way for him to serve as a proxy for the Nobel laureate who is constitutionally barred from becoming president.

MPs erupted into applause after Htin Kyaw’s victory was announced following a lengthy ballot count by hand in the capital Naypyidaw.

“I hearby declare that U Htin Kyaw has been elected the president with the most votes,” parliamentary speaker Mann Win Khaing Than told legislators.

Myanmar is in the grip of a stunning transformation from an isolated and repressed pariah state to a rapidly opening aspiring democracy.

In November, Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won a thumping victory at the polls, allowing her party to dominate Myanmar’s two legislative houses.

But the military remains a powerful force in the Southeast Asian nation and has refused to change a clause in the junta-era constitution that bars Suu Kyi from top political office.

The veteran activist has instead vowed to rule “above” the next leader.

Her choice of Htin Kyaw to act in her place is seen as a testament to her absolute faith in his loyalty.

Dawn of a new era in Myanmar as Aung San Suu Kyi’s party takes over

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AFP, Reuters

Myanmar’s new president will replace incumbent Thein Sein at the end of the month following five years of army-backed quasi-civilian leadership that has been lauded for steering the nation out from the shadow of outright military rule.

The two other candidates who were also running in Tuesday’s will now become the country’s joint vice presidents.

They are retired general Myint Swe, an army-backed candidate who remains on Washington’s sanctions list and won 213 votes, and ethnic Chin MP Henry Van Thio, who gathered 79 votes.

Most of Myint Swe’s votes came from the army’s parliamentary bloc, which is reserved a quarter of seats in parliament, and from military-backed parties.

Suu Kyi, 70, has unrivalled popularity both as the daughter of the country’s independence hero and as a central figure in the decades-long democracy struggle.

Her party’s huge election victory was seen as a further endorsement of her political star power, as millions were swept to polling stations by the NLD’s simple message of change.

Months of negotiations with army chief Min Aung Hlaing have failed to remove the obstacles blocking her from power.

Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency by a clause in the charter because she married and had children with a foreigner.

It is not yet clear what role she plans to take or how she will manage the relationship with the country’s new president.

A new cabinet, set to be announced at the end of the month, is expected to include figures from across the political spectrum as Suu Kyi looks to promote national reconciliation.

It will swiftly set about facing the country’s many challenges, including poverty, civil wars in ethnic minority borderlands and decrepit infrastructure.

Senior party figures say one of the government’s first tasks will be to whittle down myriad ministries by combining overlapping portfolios.

While little known outside Myanmar, Htin Kyaw, who helps run her charitable foundation, commands considerable respect inside the country, partly because his father was a legendary writer and early member of the NLD.

He is married to sitting NLD MP Su Su Lwin, whose late father was the party’s respected spokesman.

The military’s choice of Myint Swe, seen as a hardliner and close ally of former junta leader Than Shwe, however is proving controversial in a nation still smarting from half a century of army dominance.

Mr Kim Sang Soon, a Go teacher in southern Seoul, has been much busier these days fielding queries from parents and students on courses in the ancient chess game.

“There are indeed many more calls and visits from children, especially preschool girls. I’m pretty sure that the AlphaGo match brought back the popularity of Go,” said the 65-year-old, who has been teaching Go for the past three decades.

“This is definitely a good sign.”

Renewed interest in the Go game is sweeping through South Korea, amid a series of battles between Korean grandmaster Lee Se Dol and Google’s artificial intelligence AlphaGo.

Lee achieved his first victory against the supercomputer on Sunday after losing three games in a five-game match and is due to play the final game today (March 15).

At a children’s Go competition held by the Korea Baduk Association on Sunday, the number of new participants rose to 20 students in just one day. This is double the daily average. Around 300 students join the competition regularly every month, the association said.

The fad has also hit colleges as more individuals are expressing interest to join Go clubs.

“Compared to the past, a lot more students are asking through the school’s online community how they can join the Go club. I’m sure the number of applications is much larger this semester than before,” said Park Hyo Jeong, who heads the Go club at Ewha Womans University.

Go used to be a game for the elite in the past. It has been a common game for man in the street since the country’s liberation in 1945.

While the number of Koreans who played Go reached 10 million in the 1990s, this number has dwindled over the years, Go industry sources said.

According to a survey by Gallup Korea in 2013, only 25 per cent of people here said they knew how to play Go and of this proportion, over half of their playing abilities were at the elementary level.

“Go has been a game for all people regardless of class. The game has soothed people’s sadness and relieved stress from a long time ago. Since the game requires much time and patience, creating a boom in the game is not as easy as other games,” said KBA official Chung Dong Hwan.

“But I can see that the whole country is into Go now.”

Bookstores are benefitting from the growing interest in Go.

Kyobo Book, the largest bookstore chain in Korea, saw Go book sales rise by 7 per cent compared to last year. Online bookstore Aladdin, has also seen a jump in Go books sales by 50 per cent.

Of the top five Go books sold in the first week of this month, four were written by Go champion Lee Se Dol.

For some retailers, Go products are also flying off the shelves.

Online shopping mall Gmarket said its sales of Go items surged fivefold in the past month. Another online shopping mall, Auction, also saw sales of such items jump by 40 per cent.

Among these customers, there were over 80 per cent more customers in their 20s compared to the previous year, according to Auction officials.

“Not only Koreans are interested in Go, but also people from other countries. I believe the current boom may serve as a turning point for the Korean Go industry, depending on how well (our association) manages the opportunity,” Chung added.

Indonesia is considering scrapping subsidies on diesel fuel, an energy ministry official said late on Monday, as part of efforts to create much-needed government spending room, although the plan still requires approval from parliament.

Shortly after he took office in 2014, President Joko Widodo moved to reign in the country’s budget deficit by cutting government fuel spending by more than 90 per cent, in one of the biggest energy subsidy reforms in decades.

The reforms shifted the burden of gasoline subsidies to state energy company Pertamina, and changed diesel subsidies to a fixed rate of 1,000 rupiah (S$0.10) per litre.

But, the government is seeking further cuts to 2016 spending after the budget deficit widened to 2.53 per cent of GDP in 2015, in part due to declining oil and commodity revenues, and after parliament delayed approval of a key tax bill. “If we can reduce subsidies, there will be budget space for other sectors that are more appropriate such as for the energy security fund or infrastructure,” Energy Ministry spokesman Sujatmiko told reporters at the Ministry, referring to the plan to cut diesel subsidies.

Sujatmiko noted that the plan still needed parliamentary approval.

Energy security funds are needed to achieve Indonesia’s renewable energy targets and to build oil storage in eastern Indonesia, according to Energy Minister Sudirman Said, who was with Sujatmiko.

The ministry will propose energy security funds of up to 3 trillion rupiah to be written into the 2017 state budget, he said, declining to comment on the issue of diesel subsidies.

Indonesia’s diesel fuel demand declined by “double digits”in 2015 as the market adjusted to reduced subsidies that had crimped opportunities for fuel smuggling.

Indonesia, the world’s top palm oil producer, plans to raise the amount of palm oil-based biodiesel to 20 per cent of the content of domestic diesel in an effort to reduce fuel imports and create more demand for the edible oil.

However, falling crude prices are expected to limit the shift of diesel consumers to biodiesel, as the alternative is more costly to produce and requires large subsidies too.