http://www.channelnewsasia.com/mobi...u-kyi/2196444.html?cid=cna_editorspick_070814
Myanmar's Suu Kyi campaigns in Rakhine, but will avoid trouble spots
POSTED: 16 Oct 2015 05:15 **UPDATED: 16 Oct 2015 18:09
A
A
THANDWE: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrives in Rakhine State on Friday (Oct 16) for three days of campaigning, but she will skip the state's most restive areas where her opposition movement faces stiff competition from a powerful nationalist party.
In the build-up to the Nov 8 election in which religion and politics have become increasingly intertwined, Suu Kyi has been accused by her Rakhine rivals of being too friendly towards Muslims.
The charge is in stark contrast to the rest of the country and overseas, where the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) been criticised for saying too little about the plight of Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority.
Suu Kyi's decision to visit the southern townships in Rakhine, rather than the state's capital Sittwe and northern areas, was based on the acceptance that the NLD was unlikely to garner much support in those constituencies, party members said.
While the NLD is expected to do well in the landmark election, the party has encountered a formidable opponent in the Arakan National Party (ANP), which has been bolstered by a wave of nationalism and the rise in anti-Muslim sentiment following violence in the western state of Rakhine in 2012.
The party has cast Suu Kyi as too sympathetic to the country's marginalised Rohingya and unconcerned with issues facing Rakhine Buddhists.
Some 140,000 Rohingya remain in squalid camps in Rakhine and were stripped of voting rights this year, moves that brought international cond
