Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Let us not have any false optimism about Burma now that Nobel Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been “released” from house arrest. Suu Kyi will only be free when Burma and its long suffering people are free. The Burmese military authorities have released the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest. Appearing outside her home in Rangoon, Ms Suu Kyi told thousands of jubilant supporters they had to "work in unison" to achieve their goals. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years. It is not yet clear if any conditions have been placed on her release.
US President Barack Obama welcomed her release as "long overdue". UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Ms Suu Kyi was an "inspiration", and called on Burma to free all its remaining political prisoners. Ms Suu Kyi, 65, was freed after her latest period of house arrest expired and was not renewed by the military government. Her release comes six days after the political party supported by the military won the country's first election in 20 years. The ballot was widely condemned as a sham.
The ecstatic crowd swelled to three or four thousand before Ms Suu Kyi, in a traditional lilac dress, finally appeared, about 30 minutes later, on a platform behind the gate of her compound. She took a flower from someone in the crowd and placed it in her hair. Ms Suu Kyi then tried to speak, but was drowned out by the noise of the crowd, many singing the national anthem and chanting her name repeatedly.
"I have to give you the first political lesson since my release. We haven't seen each other for so long, so we have many things to talk about. If you have any words for me, please come to the [NLD] headquarters tomorrow and we can talk then and I'll use a loud speaker," she joked. "There is a time to be quiet and a time to talk," she added. "People must work in unison. Only then can we achieve our goal."
She then went back inside her home for the first meeting with NLD leaders in seven years. She also spoke to her youngest son, Kim Aris, who was awaiting her release in neighbouring Thailand. Ms Suu Kyi had two sons with late husband, British scholar Michael Aris.
Buddist Monks protesting in 2007
During her early years of detention, she was often in solitary confinement. She was not allowed to see her two sons or her husband, who died of cancer in March 1999. The military authorities offered to allow her to travel to the UK to see him when he was gravely ill, but she felt compelled to refuse for fear she would not be allowed back into the country. She has grandchildren she has never met.
Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of the country's independence hero, General Aung San. He was assassinated during the transition period in July 1947, just six months before independence. Aung San Suu Kyi was only two years old at the time. In 1960 she went to India with her mother Daw Khin Kyi, who had been appointed Burma's ambassador to Delhi. Four years later she went to Oxford University in the UK, where she studied philosophy, politics and economics. There she met her future husband, academic Michael Aris.
Suu Kyi as a child with her father General Aung San and mother Daw Khin Kyi
After stints of living and working in Japan and Bhutan, she settled down to be an English don's housewife in Oxford and raise their two children, Alexander and Kim. But Burma was never far from her thoughts. When she arrived back in Rangoon in 1988 - to look after her critically ill mother - Burma was in the midst of major political upheaval.
Thousands of students, office workers and monks took to the streets demanding democratic reform. "I could not, as my father's daughter remain indifferent to all that was going on," she said in a speech in Rangoon on 26 August 1988. Ms Suu Kyi was soon propelled into leading the revolt against the then-dictator, General Ne Win. Inspired by the non-violent campaigns of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King and India's Mahatma Gandhi, she organised rallies and travelled around the country, calling for peaceful democratic reform and free elections.
But the demonstrations were brutally suppressed by the army, who seized power in a coup on 18 September 1988. The military government called national elections in May 1990. Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD convincingly won the polls, despite the fact that she herself was under house arrest and disqualified from standing. But the junta refused to hand over control, and has remained in power ever since.
Less than a week ago, Myanmar's military party swept the country’s first elections in more than 20 years amid heavy criticism and allegations of widespread fraud. As a result, thousands are fleeing the region as violence erupts.
In a famous speech given to the National League for Democracy Suu Kyi brought the concepts of Mahatma Gandhi into clear focus when she said:
“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it… Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through endeavour, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one’s actions, courage that could be described as ‘grace under pressure’ – grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure….
Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure.
A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man’s self-respect and inherent human dignity.
Suu Kyi under house arrest in her family's lakeside villa on University Road, Rangoon
It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.
The wellspring of courage and endurance in the face of unbridled power is generally a firm belief in the sanctity of ethical principles combined with a historical sense that despite all the setbacks condition of man is set on an ultimate course for both spiritual and material advancement. It is his capacity for self-improvement and self-redemption which most distinguishes man from the mere brute.
At the root of human responsibility is the concept of perfection, the urge to achieve it, the intelligence to find a path towards it, and the will to follow that path if not to the end at least the distance needed to rise above individual limitations and environmental impediments.
It is man’s vision of a world fit for rational, civilized humanity which leads him to dare and to suffer to build societies free from want and fear. It is man’s vision of a world fit for rational, civilized humanity which leads him to dare and to suffer to build societies free from want and fear.
Concepts such as truth, justice and compassion cannot be dismissed as trite when these are often the only bulwarks which stand against ruthless power.”
Let us not forget that the military junta which imprisons the Burmese People, has squandered a fortune on building a make believe “Capital” in the jungle and which enriches itself and its families whilst keeping the people in poverty has over 2,100 political prisoners rotting in its squalid jails. As Daw Suu Kyi has said;
"The release of political prisoners is the most important thing for all those who truly wish to bring about change in Burma."
So let us not let the loathsome Military Junta which still rules Burma off the hook – there is still a long road to travel before the Burmese people enjoy freedom and an economy which meets their needs and aspirations. Suu Kyi’s father, General Aung San, would have been the first leader of Independent Burma if he was not assassinated in 1947. Daw Suu Kyi is the democratically elected leader of the Burmese people with her National League for Democracy having convincingly won the 1990 General election. She was denied the fruits of victory by the successors of those who killed her father. By the brave leadership of an “Army” which has only ever fought against and killed its own people. By sham generals with sham medals who have set up an oppressive kleptocracy which flogs off Burma’s natural resources to China, India and others to fatten themselves and their families whilst running Burma with spectacular incompetence.
The struggle is only beginning. Let us say it loud, let us say it clear; Aung San Suu Kyi will only be free when Burma and its long suffering people are free of the Goon Squad Junta. The struggle continues.
Daw Suu Kyi
Born 1945, daughter of Burma's independence hero, General Aung San, assassinated in 1947
1960: Leaves Burma and is later educated at Oxford University
1988: Returns to care for sick mother and is caught up in revolt against then-dictator Ne Win
1989: Put under house arrest as Burma junta declares martial law
1990: NLD wins election; military disregards result
1991: Wins Nobel Peace Prize
1995: Released from house arrest, but movements restricted
1999: Her husband Michael Aris died of cancer in the UK, she could not visit him for fear of being exiled
2000: Near continuous period of house arrest begins
Sept 2007: First public appearance since 2003, greeting protesting Buddhist monks
November 2010: NLD boycotts first election in 20 years and is disbanded; House arrest ends
Radios for Burma from Amnesty International on Vimeo.
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