After the election for the new president on Nov. 8 in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the National League for Democracy (NLD), won the majority of the vote over the rest of the party who are in the election. The election was the country’s first national vote since a nominally civilian government was introduced in 2011, ending nearly 50 years of military rule according to BBC News.

Suu Kyi is a 70-year-old who spent much of her time between 1989 and 2010 in jail as a punishment for speaking against the government according to BBC News. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to bring democracy to military-ruled Burma and that made her an international symbol of peaceful resistance in the face of oppression. She stood up for all the people of Burma who were afraid to stand up for the nation and speak against the government, so that the people can have freedom.

“Human beings want to be free and however long they may agree to stay locked up, to stay oppressed, there will come a time when they say ‘That’s it,’” Suu Kyi said. “Suddenly, they find themselves doing something that they never would have thought they would be doing, simply because of the human instinct that makes them turn their face towards freedom.”

Now, her party, NLD,  won the election, claiming 43 out of 45 seats that were offered, accruing 66% of the available votes. Then on Nov. 13 the NLD was confirmed to have won two-thirds seats they needed to control both houses of parliament and choose the next president.

Even though NLD won, Suu Kyi can’t become the next president because Article 59F of the constitution states that of one of your “legitimate children…. owns allegiance to a foreign power” you are disqualified, and that covers both of her sons, Kim Aris and Alexander Aris, who have British passports according to BBC News.

If Suu Kyi can’t become the next president, who will be taking her place? There are many candidates for the place of president, and the voters had their say on Nov. 8, but the choice of the president will be a backroom deal according to BBC News. Suu Kyi can’t become the president, but she says that she would still lead the government from parliament, effectively rendering the president a weak puppet.

“If we win and the NLD forms a government I will be above the president. It’s a very simple message,” Suu Kyi said in BBC News.

With the announcement of Suu Kyi party winning,  some students in SHS are very thrilled. Current junior Elizabeth Sung says she is very satisfied of the results and that no words can describe how happy she is to hear that Suu Kyi’s  party won the election. For Sung, Suu Kyi is the “superwoman” and the “mother” of the democracy, the foundation of Myanmar’s democracy and the one who lead the once dark world into a bright one. She says she (Suu Kyi) has sacrificed many things to approach to the democracy world, and she thinks it’s time to enter that world.

“I want everyone in my country to be able to enjoy their own life by themselves and get to know the taste of freedom life,” Sung said. “I wish they all live in a whole new world soon, which is a democracy world because they suffered enough.”

    Another student, Daniel Ling, a senior, wanted Suu Kyi to become the president of Burma because Burma is rule by the army, and they use force to make the people do something they want it to be done. He says that if Suu Kyi become the president, lots of things will change in Burma, and the people will have the rights that they couldn’t have with the current government, which is what the people of Burma want.