Myanmar's Suu Kyi gets Obama support

Yangon: President Barack Obama mounted a warm show of support today for Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, voicing opposition to a constitutional rule that's preventing the pro-democracy icon from contesting for the presidency next year.

While crediting Myanmar for progress in its transition to democracy, he offered a blunt assessment of the distressing shortcomings that have called that transition into question. In his joint appearance with Suu Kyi, on the back porch of her lakeside home, Obama stopped short of an explicit endorsement for her potential campaign for president.

But his affection and deep admiration for Suu Kyi was clear, from his praise for her efforts to liberalize the government to the ease with which he whispered in her ear as they walked arm in arm into the home where she was once confined as a political prisoner.

Although Obama was quick to caution he didn't want todictate how Myanmar should pick its next president, he said told President Thein Sein the night before that he saw little wisdom in a rule barring the 69-year-old Suu Kyi from running next year because her children hold British citizenship.

"I don't understand a provision that would bar somebody from running for president because of who their children are," Obama said. "That doesn't make much sense to me."

Suu Kyi, a member of Parliament demure in her support for changing that provision, said it was flattering to have a constitution written with her in mind. But she said that wasn't how it should be done in a democracy, urging supporters not to get too caught up in whether she wins next year's pivotal elections.

"Of course any party wants to win the elections I'm sure the president will tell you that," she said with a grin.

What's more important, she said, is how you win. "I'd rather lose than win in the wrong way."

Obama and Suu Kyi took questions from reporters on the final day of Obama's visit to Myanmar, an impoverished country struggling to reinvent itself. Obama is heavily invested in Myanmar's progress, having made a historic trip here two years ago to signal a strong US commitment to democratization in the country and the broader region.

On this visit, prompted by economic summits in the capital city of Naypyitaw, Obama faced profound concerns by Myanmar's citizens that its transition to democracy is backsliding.

At a town hall meeting today with young Southeast Asians itself a rarity in a country ruled by its military for half a century Obama told an ebullient crowd their generation has more potential than any before to shape Myanmar's society.