DHAKA: There was a time when Aung San Suu Kyi was seen as Asia’s Nelson Mandela. To her more ardent fans, she was more than that, an icon, almost a saint.

So why is the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s political party excluding Muslims from its list of candidates for November’s general election in Myanmar?, reports the BBC.

Sithu Maung had high hopes that he’d be chosen as a candidate for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) and be part of a historic electoral victory.

At 29, he’s perhaps a bit young, but otherwise he ticked all the right boxes.

A prominent student leader, he’d done time as a political prisoner after taking part in the so-called Saffron Revolution - a series of often monk-led protests in late 2007.

He targeted the Pabedan constituency in downtown Yangon. The area has a Muslim majority, which he figured would be a great fit for a Muslim candidate like himself.

But the NLD rejected Sithu Maung and a Buddhist candidate will be on the ballot instead.

He told me he was sure that his religion had played a part.

‘I wish the NLD would give a fair and equal chance to all qualified candidates,’ he told me when we met in a tea shop.’

‘Without discriminating by their race and religion.’

BDST: 1937 HRS, SEPT 08, 2015
RR