A/HRC/39/CRP.2 of President, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was appointed to the position of State Counsellor, created for her, on 6 April 2016, and acts as the de facto head of the country. The powers of the State Counsellor are not clearly delineated in the law establishing the position. 92 The State Counsellor herself told a news conference just prior to the 2015 elections that, “if we win and the NLD forms a government, I will be above the president. It’s a very simple message.” 93 She has enjoyed overwhelming popular support and moral authority and an absolute majority in both houses of parliament. 81. Despite the elections and the NLD being in power, the Government remains a quasicivilian one at best. The 2008 Constitution was designed by the military to retain its dominant role in politics and governance. It instituted a system of government with military and civilian components. Under the Constitution, 25 per cent of the seats in each house of parliament and in the state and regional assemblies belong to unelected members of the military, who are appointed by the Tatmadaw.94 This is significant because the Constitution requires 75 per cent of votes in both houses of parliament for a constitutional amendment to be adopted, giving the Tatmadaw, through its appointed members of parliament, effective veto power. Furthermore, Parliament elects the President from among three proposed candidates, one nominated by each legislative body and the third by the military appointed members of parliament. This effectively guarantees the Tatmadaw at least one vice-presidential position. Additionally, the Tatmadaw selects candidates for (and effectively controls) three key ministerial posts: Defence, Border Affairs and Home Affairs. This is sufficient to control the National Defence and Security Council and the entire security apparatus. 82. The Commander-in-Chief of the Tatmadaw, Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, is the Supreme Commander of all armed forces in Myanmar. 95 This deviates from the practice in most constitutional systems, where the head of state is usually the Supreme Commander to whom the highest-ranking military officers and institutions are subordinated. The Constitution also stipulates that the Tatmadaw has the “right to independently administer and adjudicate all affairs of the armed forces”,96 effectively removing it from any civilian oversight or control. 83. Current or former military officers occupy positions of authority across all branches of government, within the civil service and the judiciary, and in many State-owned enterprises.97 This is notably so in the powerful General Administration Department (GAD), which runs the civil service for state and regional governments and is often the first, sometimes only, contact people have with government officials or agencies. 98 The GAD is responsible for many basic administrative tasks, including registration of births, deaths and marriage, land and property ownership issues and other registration issues, such as livestock. 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 24 The Republic of the Union of Myanmar – President Office, “President signs State Counsellor Bill into law” (6 April 2016). Copy of the State Counsellor Bill on file with the Mission. A. Marshall, T. McLaughlin, “Myanmar’s Suu Kyi says will be above president in new government” (Reuters, 5 November 2015). Constitution of Myanmar, s. 109(b), 141(b) and 161(d). Constitution of Myanmar, s. 20(c). Constitution of Myanmar, s. 20(b). The major productive sectors are dominated by over 30 State-Owned Enterprises, which are headed by senior members of the military or people closely affiliated with them. They operate in many sectors, from transport to textiles and banking to natural resources. Also, Myanmar holds significant amounts of natural resources. It is, for example, the world’s single largest source of jade. It has been alleged that since the 1990s, the then small-scale industry has been transformed by the military’s moves to grant the right to operate jade mines to government-approved companies who are allegedly owned and operated by the military itself, by individuals that hold senior positions in the military, by armed groups with whom ceasefires have been concluded, or by other officially licensed enterprises. See: National Resource Governance Institute, State-Owned Economic Enterprise Reform in Myanmar: the Case of Natural Resource Enterprises (2018); Global Witness, Jade: Myanmar’s Big State Secret (2015). See Kyi Pyar Chit Saw, M. Arnold, Administering the State in Myanmar – An overview of the General Administration Department (Myanmar Development Resource Institute's Centre for Economic and Social Development & The Asia Foundation, 2014).