Ousted And Outspoken: The Lady Taking On The Lady In Myanmar

Yangon, Sept 21 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Sep, 2020 ) :Booted from Aung San Suu Kyi's "chaotic and autocratic" party, one female MP is now taking on Myanmar's national heroine in the upcoming election, claiming the country needs to work with, not against, a military accused of genocide.

Voters are expected to return Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party to power at the November 8 polls -- only the second since the country emerged from decades of outright military rule -- but Thet Thet Khine is still hoping to make her mark.

She has undergone many incarnations, from student activist to medical doctor then businesswoman and jewellery magnate -- before being elected as an NLD MP at Suu Kyi's side in 2015.

But she has since fallen from grace.

Ousted from the NLD last year -- she says for speaking her mind -- the 53-year-old hopes to entice voters to her People's Pioneer Party (PPP).

"The NLD is no longer the solution for the country," she tells AFP at her Yangon mansion, decorated with neoclassical columns, chandeliers and gold-trimmed furniture.

"The way the party is run is very chaotic and very autocratic," she says, claiming loyalty is valued over competence, and that there is a culture of micro-management and an overriding fear of upsetting The Lady.

"One person makes all the decisions." There is widespread disillusionment with the NLD in many ethnic minority areas, but the party boasts a loyal fanbase in the dominant Bamar heartlands.

And, for many, Suu Kyi embodies the NLD.

She leads the government as state counsellor, holds the reins to international relations as foreign minister and has been front and centre in the country's fight against coronavirus.

Thet Thet Khine says speaking out publicly, has meant she and relatives have faced online abuse.