No change to Myanmar parliament oath: Thein Sein

TOKYO - Myanmar's president said Monday he has no plans to change the loyalty oath that provoked democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to sit out the opening session of parliament, media in Japan
reported.

Thein Sein told reporters in Tokyo he would like to "welcome" the Nobel Peace prize winner into the chamber, but that it was up to her whether or not she took the seat she won earlier this month.
"She has to decide whether he will enter the parliament or not," he said, according to the Nikkei newspaper.

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The president, who is on a five day visit to Japan that ends Tuesday also affirmed that the process of democratisation in the country would not be reversed.
"There won't be any U-turn," Thein Sein said. "We would like to cooperate (with Aung San Suu Kyi) by heading in the same direction, in the interest of the people," the Mainichi Shimbun reported.
Thein Sein also left open the door for Suu Kyi to enter government, but said she had to decide where her priorities lay.
Noting that the constitution does not allow lawmakers to become members of the cabinet, he said: "Suu Kyi has to make her own decision."
"Suu Kyi should work for the people, rather than her own party," Jiji press cited him as saying.
Asked about any change to the constitution, the president was emollient.
"It will be decided by the wishes of the people, the opinions of the people," he said.
Thein Sein's comments, on a visit to Japan that has seen Tokyo promise to forgive US$3.7 billion (S$4.6 billion) of debt and restart aid programmes, are his first since Suu Kyi's party threatened to boycott Monday's opening parliamentary session.
The Nobel laureate, who spent much of the past two decades locked up by the former junta, had been set to make her debut in parliament on Monday after her party's decisive win in by-elections earlier this month.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) - the main opposition force after securing 43 of the 44 seats it contested in the by-elections - has appealed to the president directly over the stalemate, asking that the wording of the oath be changed from "safeguard" to "respect" the constitution.
It is the first sign of serious discord between Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) and the reformist regime since April 1 by-elections that gave the former political prisoner her first-ever seat in parliament.
The authorities have rejected the NLD's appeal to change the wording of the swearing-in oath.