Buzz Over Post-Sanctions Myanmar Fades

In this Wall Street Journal article, US companies complained that Burma had more hurdles for investments than they had previously anticipated.

Priscilla Clapp, former Charge d'affaires of the US embassy in Rangoon, defends President Thein Sein and his Ministers as reformers in the Nikkei Asian Review.

While Burma is a FPTP presidentialism, it is as though in the Proportional Representation (PR) system that the NLD made its parliamentary candidate selection, based on personal loyalty and clientalism.

In such an arrangement, the party may assess candidates' performance by the number of votes the latter get in respective constituencies, but there is a lack of accountability mechanism for voters once the MPs are inside the parliament. How will the electorates know which legislators gave what vote on specific issues or spot "free riding"? Adding to that a strong personality cult, this would be a serious challenge for the country's democratic prospects.
 

The former military regime created a semi-presidential system that avoids responsibility on purpose. The pro-democracy party is not only incapable of reforming the system, it is contributing to make the institutions opaque and unaccountable.