It took two elections spaced over a quarter of a century, but Myanmar's military junta has finally got the message and is obeying the will of the citizens as expressed in the 2015 elections. In November, the ruling Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP) woke up to find out just how reviled it really is, winning just 6.8 percent of seats in the House of Representatives.
Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy (NKD) have finally ousted the military leaders who have misled their country for more than half a century, winning an absolute majority in both houses of parliament; 25 percent of the seats were not contested because they were reserved for those nominated by the military. In the lower house, the NLD won 255 seats versus the USDP's 30, a humiliating thrashing for a kleptocractic elite that arrogantly imagined that it could fool the people into believing that only they could be trusted.
In 1990, the NLD also won an overwhelming majority in the elections, but the obdurate and paranoid junta refused to acknowledge the results. Due to Suu Kyi's perseverance through a total of 15 years of house arrest and the people's belief that hope could prevail over oppression, Myanmar is emerging from a prolonged nightmare. For this triumph, as well as her commitment to realizing what she terms "freedom from fear," she is Asia's person of the year. The 1991 Nobel laureate is barred by the military's misbegotten 2008 constitution from assuming her rightful position as president, but her inspiring presence since the military slaughtered peaceful protesters in 1988, denied democracy in 1990 and gunned down monks on the streets of Yangon in 2007 (the so-called Saffron Revolution) has kept the dream alive and, because of that, she is the people's president.