Myanmar government leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Tuesday (Aug 21) her relationship with the military - which held her under house arrest for nearly 15 years - was "not that bad" and that the generals in her cabinet were "rather sweet".
However, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been criticised for failing to speak out against an army crackdown in Rakhine State that the United Nations has called "ethnic cleansing", said she hoped constitutional change would eventually curb the military's influence.
"Our relationship with the army is not that bad," the Nobel peace prize laureate and the face of Myanmar's democratic awakening, said at an event in Singapore in response to a question about whether she feared another military coup.
"Don't forget that we have three members of the cabinet who are in fact military men, generals, and they're all rather sweet."
The military ruled Myanmar for nearly 50 years after seizing power in a 1962 coup. The generals have initiated reforms, beginning in late 2010 with Aung San Suu Kyi's release from house arrest, and they have largely stepped back from the day-to-day running of the country, handing over to Suu Kyi's government after her party swept a 2015 election.
But the military retains considerable powers under a 2008 constitution and Aung San Suu Kyi, barred under that constitution from becoming president, said the transition to democracy was "still incomplete".
Source: Channel News Asia