As the world prepares to observe International Women's Day tomorrow, one thing Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters are unlikely to be celebrating is the prospect of Myanmar having its first female president.
The Myanmar parliament has moved up its vote for president by a week to this Thursday, leaving little time for any more negotiations to move the Nobel Peace Prize winner and landslide election winner into the country's top job. Her chances were already remote, as the military-drafted constitution bars people with foreign spouses or children from the post.
In any case it is expected that Aung San Suu Kyi will be leading Myanmar in all but title, though that does not diminish the urgency of the message chosen for International Women's Day 2016: "Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality."
The Nov 8 election in Myanmar brought 43 women, or 9.9% of all members, into the Pyithu Hluttaw (House of Representatives) and 23 women, or 10.3%, into the Amyotha Hluttaw (House of Nationalities), the country's upper house.
Globally, 22.6% of the members of national parliaments are women -- double the ratio of 11.3% seen in 1995, according to data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Nordic countries have the highest percentage at 41.1% -- but only in their lower houses.
In the Americas the figure for upper and lower houses combined is 27.2%. In the European members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, excluding Nordic states, the ratio is 24.3%. The figure in Sub-Saharan Africa is 23.1%, Asia 18.8%, Arab states 17.5% and Pacific nations 15.8%.
In Asean, the Philippine House of Representatives has the highest proportion of women, followed by Laos, Vietnam, Singapore, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
Of course, more women in politics does not necessarily mean less corruption, as is often assumed. But UN Women maintains that democratic and transparent politics is correlated with lower levels of corruption, and the two create an enabling environment for more women to participate.
In the business world, the Philippines leads Asean in terms of female senior executives. It has also produced two female heads of government. That's one more than Thailand, where Yingluck Shinawatra has not had an easy time in or out of office. While the political shortcomings of her administration can be debated, no one deserves the sexism to which she has been subjected.
Many people still remember some of the appalling comments about Ms Yingluck made by self-styled "good people" during the rallies led by Suthep Thaugsuban two years ago. Just last week, the former premier was the object of a gratuitous comment that reflected the maturity of the people now running the country.
"She's followed because she's beautiful. Otherwise people won't pay attention," Gen Prawit Wongsuwan said in defence of increased military surveillance of the former premier.
Even more bizarre and scary was the junta's response when Watana Muangsuk, a former cabinet minister, called out Gen Prawit on Facebook for making a sexist remark. Mr Watana was nabbed without a warrant on Wednesday, taken for "attitude adjustment" and now faces defamation and computer crimes charges.
Some might consider Gen Prawit's remark harmless, but it speaks to the general ignorance the junta -- and, to be fair, many other public figures -- displays about gender issues.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha set the bar as low as it can get when he observed, shortly after the Koh Tao murders in 2014, that Thailand might not be that safe for beautiful women in bikinis.
In January this year, he wandered off-topic at a public event and shared more of his wisdom. "Everybody's saying we should create equality, women and men should have the same rights, should be able to do the same good and bad things -- if that's the case, if that's how you think, Thai society will deteriorate!" he declared.
"Women are the gender of motherhood, the gender of giving birth. When you return home ... who is it? Isn't the wife looking after the home? At home she's the big boss, isn't she? Outside I'm the boss -- at work, everywhere I have lots of authority."
Some put this down to a typical Thai male notion of how things are, which suggests that international campaigns to promote gender equality have failed here.
Many still relate gender equality to being equally rich or of equal status. In fact gender equality is more about mutual respect, with acceptance and understanding between men and women. It's a basic human rights issue.
So let's celebrate International Women's Day by getting back to basics -- mutual respect and mutual treatment.
