Prisoner

An NLD lawmaker’s long journey from prison to parliament

In one of the many rooms of Burma’s massive parliament building in Naypyidaw, the country’s sprawling military-designed capital, Bo Bo Oo is busy reviewing a stack of letters on his desk. The newly minted National League for Democracy (NLD) lower house MP is going through numerous invitations, meeting requests from foreign embassies, and several letters from businessmen seeking appointments. Bo Bo Oo, the secretary of the lower house’s International Relations Committee, said he would politely decline the latter since he does not want to be persuaded into serving any business interests. “Many positive things are coming our way. It is very important that we are not tempted by some of them,” he said. For the 52-year-old, his new place in the halls of power presents a sharp contrast with how he spent most of his adult life. Bo Bo Oo was jailed by the former military junta at age 26 for participating in the 1988 democratic uprising; from 1989 to 2009 he was held in different prisons across the country. “These days, people often ask me if I ever imagined these changes in the past. I say I never even thought about it,” he told Myanmar Now in an interview in the…