Like the South African leader Nelson Mandela before her, Aung San Suu Kyi, has come to be seen internationally as a symbol of heroic and peaceful resistance in the face of oppression.
For the Burmese people, Aung San Suu Kyi represents their best and perhaps sole hope that one day there will be an end to the country’s military repression.
She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1991, by which time she had been under house arrest for two out of what was to become six years.
Her sons went to Oslo to accept the award on her behalf. At the presentation, the Chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, Francis Sejested, called her “an outstanding example of the power of the powerless”.
“Aung San Suu Kyi cannot be silenced because she speaks the truth,” he said.
Now aged 58, Suu Kyi is the daughter of the late Burmese nationalist leader, General Aung San, whose resistance to British colonial rule culminated in Burma’s independence in 1948.
After attending school in the Burmese capital Rangoon, Aung San Suu Kyi lived in India, and then went to Britain for her University education.
This is where she met and married her husband, Michael Aris, an Oxford University academic.
Already then, Michael Aris knew his wife’s destiny might ultimately lie with Burma.
“Before we were married I promised my wife that I would never stand between her and her country,” he says.
Aung San Suu Kyi first came to prominence when she returned to Burma in August 1988, with her husband and their two sons remaining in Britain.
She became the leader of a burgeoning pro-democracy movement in the aftermath of the brutal repression of a pro-democratic uprising earlier that summer.
Election Victory:
The movement quickly grew into a political party that went on to win an overwhelming majority 82% percent in national elections in 1990, by which time she had already been under house arrest for a year.
The military regime, however, refused to relinquish power and stepped up intensified repression of her party, the National League for Democracy.
Martin Smith, a writer on Burmese affairs, says there are several reasons why Aung San Suu Kyi proved such a natural leader.
“Her father was the founder of the democratic movement. So Suu Kyi in a way had inherited that kind of tradition.
“But the second thing is of course down to Aung San Suu Kyi herself, her role in the democracy movement and her speeches about the need for change in Burmese society.
“And I think there is a further thing she very much had on her side – that is her comparative youth in Burmese politics.”
Inspired by the non-violent campaigns of the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, and India’s Mahatma Gandhi, Aung San Suu Kyi organised rallies after her return to Burma, and travelled the country, calling for peaceful democratic reforms and free elections.
She campaigned for change through dialogue.
For much of the 16 years since she returned to Burma from overseas, she has been under house arrest in the capital Rangoon.
She was initially under house arrest for six years, until she was released on 10 July 1995. After her release from six years of house arrest in 1995, she defined what might actually produce the talks that she wants:
“We think that the strength of our movement is really in the country itself.
“It is in the will of the people and the great majority of people in Burma want democracy.
“We as the National League for Democracy and as part of the forces for democracy, are always ready to work together with the authorities to achieve national reconciliation and we would like to think that the strength of our good will and the very strong desire of the people for democracy will bring positive results.”
She was again put under house arrest in September 2000, when she tried to travel to the central northern city of Mandalay in defiance of travel restrictions.
Impressive person:
However, on 6 May 2002, she was released unconditionally following secretive talks with the military junta.
During that second period under house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi was able to regularly meet the other top leaders of her party, the National League for Democracy, and selected senior visiting diplomats like the United Nations special envoy Razali Ismail.
This was in stark contrast with the previous time, when she was often in solitary confinement, and for several years was not allowed to see her two sons or her husband, the late British academic Michael Aris.
During these periods of confinement, Aung San Suu Kyi busied herself studying and exercising. She meditated, worked on her French and Japanese language skills, and relaxed by playing Bach on the piano.
She has often said that the earlier period of detention made her more resolute and ready to dedicate the rest of her life to represent the average Burmese citizen.
But Aung San Suu Kyi is no ordinary person.
The UN envoy Razali Ismail has said privately that the opposition leader is undoubtedly one of the most impressive people he has ever met, and the Burmese junta owe it to the rest of the world to allow her to realise her potential – for he is certain that not only Burma but Asia will benefit from her political leadership.
Overseas life:
Much of Aung San Suu Kyi’s appeal within Burma lies in the fact she 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 Aung San Suu Kyi – then a teenager – went to India with her mother Daw Khin Kyi, who had been appointed Burma’s ambassador to Delhi.
While there, she lived the life of a diplomat’s child and developed a wide circle of Indian friends which included Indira Gandhi’s sons Rajiv and Sanjay.
Four years later she went to Oxford University in the UK, where she studied philosophy, politics and economics. There she met her future husband, Michael Aris.
After stints of living and working in Japan and Bhutan, she settled down to be an English don’s housewife and raise their two children, Alexander and Kim.
But Burma was never too far away from her thoughts.
It was not until 1988 that she returned to Rangoon alone – initially to look after her critically ill mother. But she arrived in the midst of a major political upheaval.
Thousands of students, office workers and monks took to the streets for months, 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. It was Burma’s second struggle for independence, she said.
Aung San Suu Kyi was soon propelled into leading the revolt against 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 – the State Law and Order Restoration Council – 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 power.
In March 1999 Aung San Suu Kyi suffered a major personal tragedy when her husband died of cancer.
The military authorities did offer to allow her to travel to the UK to see him on his deathbed. But she refused, for fear that the government would not allow her back into the country.
She had not seen him for three years.
Now, after years of trying to ignore and belittle Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s generals have started secret talks with her on Burma’s political future. It has raised hopes inside and outside the country that this may eventually lead to some form of democracy.
For the Burmese on the street, Aung San Suu Kyi represents their aspirations for freedom from military oppression.
Despite Suu Kyi’s official release from house arrest, there are still de facto restrictions on her freedom to move and speak, and oppression of pro-democracy activism continues.
Burma’s human rights record has been rated one of the worst in the world after Algeria.
While she is alive, those hopes of liberation continue to burn bright.
Source : www.dassk.org
