The international celebrity had earlier promised that she would be – quote – “above the president”, meaning that President Kyaw is essentially her political surrogate. However, things might not be as simple as that, since the new vice-president is Myint Swe, the country’s former intelligence chief and one of the individuals that are currently sanctioned by the US.
This can be taken to mean that the effectiveness of the new Myanmar government might be hindered by the predicted disagreements that these two highest-level officials are likely to have with one another, and that a resolution to the world’s longest-running civil war might still be a far way’s off.
Igor Pellicciari, Professor at the LUISS University (Rome) – studio guest; Gleb Ivaschentsov, Russia’s former Ambassador to Myanmar; Ahmed Rajeev, journalist, political analyst and a contributor to Southfront (Bangaldesh); and Manish Chand, CEO & Editor-in-Chief of the India Writes Network shared their thoughts.