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Aung San Suu Kyi

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Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the world’s most renowned leaders, championing the rights of individuals, freedom and democracy in the face of a brutal dictatorship in Burma. With her steely grace and charisma, she is a symbol of hope, defiance and moral strength for the 55 million people of Burma. The Burmese people call her “mother”, indicative of the important and endearing role that she plays in her country.

It has been 22 years since she was thrown into the midst of the country’s biggest political upheaval. To this day, she remains the legitimately elected leader of the Burmese people, but due to her political vision and popularity among the Burmese public, she has spent over 15 of the last 21 years under house arrest.

Born on June 19th 1945 in Burma, she is the daughter of the country’s independence hero, General Aung San. She was only two years old at the time of her father’s assassination. As her mother was the Burmese ambassador to India and Nepal, Suu Kyi was always on the move, and she received her education in Burma, India, and the United Kingdom.

“A strong sense of duty toward my people and my country, I was always aware of that”

In 1988, while living in London, she returned to Burma to attend to her ailing mother, and was thrust into the forefront of the country’s nationwide uprising, often referred to as the 8888 Uprising. She joined the newly-formed opposition political party, National League for Democracy and became the General Secretary of the party. Suu Kyi made several public appearances, gave speeches and campaigned far and wide calling for freedom and democracy while exposing the Burmese military regime for its lack of legitimacy and competence.

On August 26th 1988 at the famous Shwedagon Pagoda in central Yangon, during her first and best-known speech, she told the cheering crowd of half a million people: “The present crisis is the concern of the entire nation. I could not, as my father’s daughter, remain indifferent to all that was going on. This national crisis could, in fact, be called the second struggle for independence.” With that speech, she won the hearts and minds of the Burmese people.

As her popularity soared, the military regime became nervous over the frailty of its own power and responded with utmost brutal force. The soldier shot at thousands of peaceful protesters, killing up to 5,000 civilians and injuring thousands of students, women, children and elders. Thousands more were arrested, tortured and given lengthy prison sentences. Many of them remain behind bars as political prisoners to this day. Aung San Suu Kyi, too, was immediately put under house arrest.

“Victory denied”

Following the months of carnage and brutal crackdown, in an attempt to redeem whatever was left of their power and legitimacy, the military government called for general elections in 1990. Although the military junta tried to keep Suu Kyi isolated from the Burmese people, her absence only made the hearts of the people grow fonder of her and her vision for a free and democratic Burma. Despite being under house arrest, her political party, NLD, won a landslide victory in the elections with a staggering 82% of seats in the parliament. The regime never recognized the results of the election and continues to silent and persecute voices of dissent in the country.

“My choice has already been made. It’s my country first”

In a letter to her late husband, Michael Aris, that she wrote before their marriage in 1972, she said, “I only ask one thing, that should my people need me, you would help me to do my duty by them.” For Suu Kyi, her country always comes first, even at the expense of being separated from loved ones. Since becoming the figurehead of the democratic movement in Burma, Suu Kyi has been denied the ability to see her family, which resides in England.

When Michael Aris was dying from prostate cancer and asked to see his wife one last time, the military junta denied him the opportunity. Instead, they encouraged Suu Kyi to leave Burma to see her dying husband. Knowing that once she stepped out of the country, she would not be allowed to return, Aung San Suu Kyi decided to stay in Yangon. The military regime’s cruelty went as far as cutting off phone lines and all forms of communications between her and her husband. Michael Aris died on March 27th 1999, without ever seeing his wife again. The last time she saw her two children, Alexander and Kim, was back in 2000. Since then, she has been locked away at her lakeside residence, barred from communicating with the outside world and her family.

Although San Suu Kyi has chosen the path of hardship, loss, and sacrifice, she once said in an interview,”I don’t look upon it as a sacrifice. It’s a choice. If you choose to do something, then you shouldn’t say it’s a sacrifice because nobody forced you to do it.”

“Years of arrest”

Aung San Suu Kyi has been in and out of arrest ever since 1988. She has spent over 14 out of 20 years under house arrest at her lakeside home-cum-prison, where her family once lived. She was detained from 1989 to 1995 and from 2000-2002.

In May 2003,  her envoy was brutally attacked by government-backed thugs, in an incident referred to as Depayin Massacre (name derived from where the incident took place). Up to 100 of her supporters were believed to have been beaten to death by the regime’s cronies. Even the car in which Suu Kyi was riding came under attack, but she escaped the ambush unscathed and was immediately arrested by the junta. To illustrate the rule of law does not exist under the military regime, instead of arresting the thugs who attacked her envoy, the government arrested her supporters and witnesses at the scene. She has been under house arrest from May 2003 to this day.

A few weeks before her detention terms came to an end, in May 2009 a bizarre incident occurred involving an unknown American named John Yettaw who swam to her lakeside home and sought refuge there for a couple of days. The military regime accused her of breaching the terms of her house detention and brought her to court. Many people inside and outside of Burma speculated that it was a politically motivated attempt by the military government to extend her detention terms in order to prevent her from participating in the 2010 elections. The international community severely condemned the trumped-up charges and the circumstances of the court proceedings. The trial spanned over three months and in August 2009, a verdict was made, sentencing her to 18 more months under house arrest.

On November 13, 2010 at 5pm local time, Aung San Suu Kyi was released from her house attention, after 7 years of lock-up. Tens of thousands of her supporters reportedly waited patiently outside her residence to get the first glimpse of the Lady of Burma once freed. Her release was covered through and through by worldwide media well as domestic news agencies. In her first public speech since release, she reiterated her call for a tripartite dialogue between democratic forces, the ethnic representatives, and the military junta. She also encouraged her supporters to not feel “dejected” and to work together with her to achieve “freedom and political and economic security” in the country.

Even after 7 years of disappearance from the public scene due her house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi’s popularity is palpably still as strong and riveting as the first time she stepped onto the political scene of Burma twenty years ago.

“International Recognition and Rewards”

Aung San Suu Kyi has won numerous international awards. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for being “one of the extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades.” In 2008, the US Senate honored her with the Congressional Medal of Honour award, the highest civilian award in the continental US. Her other awards include Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament, the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Jawaharlal Nehru Award from India.