"Four years into the five-year term of the NLD-led government, the issue of political prisoners remains one of the main problems in the country. Almost all the repressive laws that the military dictatorship used to jail activists remain in place. State media controlled by the NLD government has even carried propaganda features defending and promoting the usefulness of repressive laws, and new repressive laws have been proposed. On the sixth anniversary of the death of U Win Tin, almost 200 political prisoners remain in jail, and almost 400 more activists and journalists are awaiting trial and possible detention. Aung San Suu Kyi, as de facto leader of the NLDled government, has the power through Presidential pardons to order the release of all political prisoners. Her party has the majority in Parliament needed to repeal all repressive laws. Instead of the compassionate and principled stance you would expect of her as a former political prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi denies that there are political prisoners in the country and has made a deliberate decision to keep those political prisoners behind bars. This is not an issue where it can be claimed that she lacks the power to act or is constrained by the military. The military handed the power regarding political prisoners to the civilian government. Constitutionally there is no obstacle, and politically Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly acted on issues which she considers important despite potentially upsetting the military, including making herself defacto President by creating the State Counsellor position for herself..."