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| Photo: courtesy of the AP |
Today the world is celebrating the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, an icon of democracy in Southeast Asia, she has been under house arrest for much of the past 21 years. She has led the fight for democracy against the ruling junta in the country known as Burma (or Myanmar). The daughter of the general who led the county to its independence, Aung San Suu Kyi picked up the mantle of freedom and democracy after her mother's death. In 1989 she led her party, the National League of Democracy (NLD) to a landslide victory over the military junta, winning eighty-two percent of the seats in parliament all but insuring democratization of a country long denied self rule. Instead the elections were annulled by the junta and Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the last 21 years under house arrest. Her release marks a huge victory for democracy but must also remind everyone of how much is left to be done.
The Lady of Inya Lake
After the death of her mother in 1988, Aung San Suu Kyi understood that only she could led the fight for democracy started by her father, carried on by her mother, and now left to her as her inheritance. Suu Kyi, not by choice, became the only figure who could bring together the the people of Burma and shrug of the authoritarian yoke that has held sway over Burma since her own fathers murder in 1947. Upon her entrance into politics, the military junta has been at a virtual stand off with her, once holding her hostage within her own car for two weeks. She has escaped government sanctioned assassination attempts multiple times and still she has had the courage to fight for what is right.
In 1989, Suu Kyi and her NLD party challenged the military junta in an election that captured international attention. Suu Kyi ran to become an M.P. and won overwhelmingly against her opponent. The wave election that followed saw nearly eighty-two percent of the parliamentary seats won by the NLD candidate, which made Aung San Suu Kyi, as party secretary, the number one person positioned to become Prime Minister of Burma. Unfortunately, Than Shwe, the senior general of the junta, nullified the elections and soon passed laws prohibiting anyone who had married a foreigner from holding a political office. Suu Kyi, who married Englishman Dr. Michael Aris, with whom she had two children.
Soon after the elections, Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest for the first time, and where she has spent fifteen of the last twenty-one years of her life. Due to her imprisonment in her own crumbling home by the side of Lake Inya, Suu Kyi was not allowed to see her children nor her husband, who died in 1999 from cancer. Since then, she has been released twice and has up until now, had her sentence extended four more times. She was even awarded the 1991 Noble Peace Prize, which of course she did not attend because, she was under detention. Her longest period of continuous house arrest lasted for over seven years. There have also been multiple incidences where Aung San Suu Kyi had been rushed too the hospital for emergency treatment due to poor health. The only people with which she was even allowed direct contact with was her three nurses and her doctor.
Now after holding staged elections, and after having run out of ideas on how to extended her detention period, Aung San Suu Kyi, reverently called the 'lady' by the people of Burma, has been released from house arrest. Does this signal a shift in relations between the junta and the democratic opposition? Unlikely. The reality is that the junta now has a electoral victory, albeit rigged, to continue its stranglehold on Burma. Even Suu Kyi's own NLD party has stated that her release only occurred because of there vain attempt at legitimacy. Still, today is a great day for this wonderful lady, who has sacrificed so much for her cause. Congratulations to Aung San Suu Kyi, congratulations to the people of Burma, and let us all hope for a more a free and Burma.
Later,
Cody
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