The Lady runs for a seat, and Hillary Clinton calls on the generals

The West never seemed to have understood that most people who have lived for millennia on the periphery of China (such as the Tibetans, Uighurs, Burmese, Vietnamese, etc.) have such a long historical resentment towards China and the Chinese.
It is simply a deep-seated fear and existential "angst" of losing their indigenous culture, life-style, religion and and sovereignty (or even your ethnicity) and there are many historical instances in which these things happened to neighbouring regions of China (Nan-Chao, Tungut and now Tibet).
Most Western scholars normally know Asian history through Chinese accounts, which are very biased and ethnocentric. Dark-skinned Asians have a different view of Chinese and nothing unites a country more than the clear and imminent danger of a foreign invasion and domination.

But how does one wean Burma off the narcotics trade, worth what? USD25bn?

It is a joint effort welcomed by all. Suu Kyi will soon have the chance to prove her capability in taking the lead of the country. But, ahead of her are still the rocky road dotted with pebbles of power struggle, negotiation, compromise, and so on.

China might be happy to see a "normalised" neighbouring country in the south.

This is a good sign that even the people in power can resolve a political issue with the masses without recourse to gun power.

While people are all jubilant, the arms vendors might feel otherwise. Peace is perhaps their deadly enemy. Hope the tide is being turned.

It's really great to see Aung San Suu Kyi finally running for a public office that she will probably win. This is pretty remarkable after all that she has been through with the house arrest. After many years of military dictatorship it looks like Burma is finally changing for the better and making some progress. Key phrase there is "looks like". I'm not completely convinced that the junta running the country would peacefully give up any of its power. Maybe that's just me being pessimistic, but in all honesty it's hard to imagine that happening. It will be interesting to see how all of these elections play out and to see if the NLD actually wins a significant amount of seats in the parliament.

I am glad that Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest because she is a huge asset to Myanmar. The people there very much so respect her and agree with her political standings. It is somewhat known that Myanmar has a corrupt government because it has been brought to attention that the army's political figures have been favored in elections. The fact that Hillary Clinton is going to visit Myanmar will really do some good for the country. It will put Myanmar more on the map and attempt to get rid of it being under China. All in all Myanmar may be headed for some improvements in his government and position in the world.

Improvement is definitely occurring, but as long as the Junta hold power there cannot be any truly democratic progress. Suu Kyi has made an enormous impact on making sure the people's voices are heard, and has been a power player on Burmese politics for quite some time. Sadly a power shift from the Junta to a fair, democratic, Myanmar may be a long-term goal. Myanmar still suffers from the war crimes and collateral damage induced by Than Shwe and may not have the infrastructure to support a total democracy. Hopefully Hilary Clinton's visit will shed some light on the situation and induce some global involvement.

It's good that ASEAN is rewarding Burma. This will encourage them to make positive changes. Hopefully they will stick to their changes. As before, they had held elections and altered it to stay in power. The US is smart to go in first, and hopefully before China. The States are losing power in Asia because of China's rise. And China's influence will try to keep their Asian neighbors from allying too much with the West. Burma could become a strong country in the future, so it's good that the US is going to try to get on good terms with them.

A few months ago, the Economist came out with an article, explaining how the military dictatorship of Burma had been releasing political prisoners, showing signs of change in the nation. In 2 months, things have continued to improve at an impressive level, leading those to believe that Aung San Suu Kyi is on the verge of becoming the next leader of this nation. With Hillary Clinton supposedly visiting Burma in December, an about face of a nation will occur within the next year, and the US will most likely increase ties with this rapidly changing nation.

As long as the upcoming election is not rigged, as suspected previously, Aung San Suu Kyi will win a sit fairly easily due to her popularity. But the only question is will the military junta take her seriously, since she could undermine its power. Hopefully the junta will actually listen to her and accept reforms to rectify some of the human rights abuses in Myanmar. They may also listen to her to appease foreign powers, particularly ASEAN and the United States, in order for the government to have a better light on the international stage.

Some people of Myanmar may wish that they were not in the middle of two superpowers, but realistically it may be the only way to get their economy back on track. With increasingly democratic political views, Myanmar is apparently quickly coming into the U.S.'s favor. I think this would be a good time for Myanmar to explore political and economical options, and at least stray away from being under China's economic rule.

It is good to see some positive forward movement in Myanmar. Now that Aung San Suu Kyi is off of house arrest she can continue to move the country out of the military dictatorship. It will be interesting to see how the military will react to future demonstrations that Aung San Suu Kyi leads. It seems very possible that Aung San Suu Kyi could find herself back on house arrest for a second time.

There is something of a conspiracy afoot to induce the NLD to take part in the elections. Everyone is conniving at it, including the US and the EU, as well as ASEAN, China and Russia and above all the Burmese Government. There have in fact been only three cosmetic changes to a single election law, primarily designed to make it compatible with the 2008 Constitution, which remains intact.

Firstly, the Political Parties Registration Law has replaced a required undertaking by political parties to "safeguard" the Constitution with an undertaking to "respect" it, because that is the word used in the Constitution and the anomaly needed to be corrected. Secondly, an explanatory note has been added to another clause to say that political parties must compete not only in at least three constituencies in general elections, but also in at least three constituencies in multiple by-elections, since otherwise new parties could not be registered at all. Thirdly, a hard-line clause in the law saying that persons in prison cannot remain members of political parties has been removed - there are thought to be some 200 NLD political activists in prison, so they can now retain their membership of the NLD, but they will still be unable to vote or to stand for election. This last change brings the law into line with the 1947, 1974 and 2008 Constitutions and the 1989 Election Law, all of which had no such clause.

None of this applied to Suu Kyi herself as she was not in prison, which is why her name was still on the electoral roll, and she could have voted in the November 2010 elections, but declined to do so. She was also eligible to stand for election on the basis of her civil status, but would have been blocked from standing for other reasons, including her membership of an illegal organisation, the Committee Representing the People's Parliament, which will now presumably disappear.

In short, this amendment to a single law is but a fig-leaf, and of no relevance at all to the NLD's decision not to compete in the November 2010 elections. The Constitution remains untouched. But some face-saving device had to be found to resolve the NLD's dilemma, so the myth of "various changes to the electoral laws", as you put it, has been accepted by everyone, and the NLD has now applied to reregister on the spurious basis that its original "concerns" have somehow been, if not exactly met, then at least taken into account.

So let us all rejoice in this laudable conspiracy of political correctness, all done in a noble cause - national reconciliation in Burma, and peace and stability in the South East Asian region.

Why everything has to involve China? The best thing Myanmar government can achieve without China's blessing is to splinter out the areas under their control, while leave out large chunks of area boarding China for independence, and possibly eventual assimilation into greater China.

Most important thing in the Hilliary's mind is to make sure the generals can promise to service the geo-strategy in the region rather their quirky takes on democracy reform.

It looks as if Myanmar is headed into the right direction. Sure, nothing happens overnight but it looks like they already on the fast track to success. The chairmanship into ASEAN is huge! That group is a major player in today's world. A pass into that group means you are doing things right.

Even though Myanmar is improving, I believe that a new change in leadership is needed to fully turn this country back on track. The military leaders of the country have thrown Myanmar into conflict, and have frozen diplomatic relations. Even though Hillary Clinton is going to be visiting the country, there needs to be more change occurring in order for the country to truly improve. Ms Suu Kyi has played an important role in the improvement of this country, and she should be able to have a big role in the political system because she knows what to do to improve the foundation of the country. Even though there has been significant political change and slight thawing with the frozen diplomatic relations, there needs to be a change in leadership in order to turn the country around.

This seems like a Mao's picturesque "Let a thousand flowers bloom" moment for Myanmar. Then, there is no need for just the Aung San Suu Kyi to augment the occasion.
May all ‘Daw’s and ‘U’s in Myanmar arise and say your piece for a peaceful and purposeful Myanmar.

While there have been changes to the election law,and it appears that Myanmar could be heading toward rebirth of its democracy movement, I still find it hard to believe that the junta controlling the country would ever give up any real power peacefully which makes most of these reforms simply cosmetic changes.

This is a good thing for Myanmar, she is a very popular person in her country and it is very likely that she will win a seat. It is a good sign to see that the government didn't have a problem to see the national party to be unbanned and participate in the upcoming election. It seems to be going in a right direction for this country. If Aung San Suu Kyi succesfully wins a seat, in the future she has a big chance to run for president. That will drastically change Myanmar, from a military leadership to a woman in power. That will definitly signify the change that is taking place in Myanmar. I hope this election go well, because this is the first step of what seems to be a lot of positive change coming. She has been the icon for all the people in Myanmar, so letting her finally getting some say in the government is great for her country.

I think that to get to a level of independence, Burma needs to get out from under China's influence (granted, I'm biased). But I think China's ideologies will tend to encourage the militaristic-type government/less freedoms for the people, while Western influence will encourage what Aun San Suu Kyi has been fighting for: more freedom for Burmese citizens. Good relations with China is important, absolutely, but strong influence from them is probably not the right direction for Burma.