The Lady of Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

because they aren't stupid enough. The Junta probably waited the option and figure it would be less costly to keep her under house arrest then execute her. Since no one, not even their own grand mother would believed it if they said she died in a accident, even if it is a real accident.

Still, has a leader of a popular movement like that ever been kept under house arrest for so long before.

Somehow it would have made more sense (especially considering how ruthless the regime is), to have simply offed her when she initially became prominent.

[Sumeragi]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

Still, has a leader of a popular movement like that ever been kept under house arrest for so long before.

Somehow it would have made more sense (especially considering how ruthless the regime is), to have simply offed her when she initially became prominent.

Again, it's because of who her father was: Aung San, Burmese revolutionary, nationalist, founder of the modern Burmese army, leading architect of independence, and founder of the Union of Burma. To kill off the daughter would mean turning even the supporters of the Junta against the government.

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

Again, it's because of who her father was: Aung San, Burmese revolutionary, nationalist, founder of the modern Burmese army, leading architect of independence, and founder of the Union of Burma. To kill off the daughter would mean turning even the supporters of the Junta against the government.

That... makes sense.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Myanmar opposition claims by-election win for Suu Kyi

Yangon (April 1, Sun): Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi won a seat in Parliament today, her party said, after a historic by-election that is testing Myanmar's nascent reform credentials and could convince the West to end sanctions.

Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party announced to loud cheers at its headquarters that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate had won in Kawhmu, south-west of the commercial capital Yangon, raising the prospect of her first role in government after a 20-year struggle against dictatorship.

The United States and European Union have hinted that some sanctions — imposed over the past two decades in response to human rights abuses — may be lifted if the election is free and fair, unleashing a wave of investment in the impoverished but resource-rich country bordering rising powers India and China.

The charismatic and wildly popular Suu Kyi had complained last week of "irregularities", though none significant enough to derail her party's bid for 44 of the seats. She made no immediate comment on her victory.

From dawn, voters quietly filed into makeshift polling stations at schools, religious centers and community buildings, some gushing with excitement after casting ballots for the frail 66-year-old leader, or "Aunty Suu", as she is affectionately known.

REUTERS

'We're trying to get to one'

Yangon (Mar 31, Sat): In her final address ahead of Myanmar's closely watched by-election, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi defended her decision to take part in the polls, saying that while they are not perfect, they are an important part of the road to democracy.

"It's the rising political awareness of our people that we regard as our greatest triumph," the Nobel Peace laureate told 200 journalists, observers and diplomats at her home in central Yangon yesterday (Mar 30).

In the lead-up to the polls, Ms Suu Kyi had been questioned by some who believe that the Myanmar government deliberately wants her to win a seat in Parliament, so as to give its reform drive legitimacy and encourage the West to ease longstanding sanctions.

Myanmar's military regime had begun the transition to a civilian government only recently, and is still seen as being in the nascent stages of democracy.

"We're going to work towards national reconciliation as we've always intended, and we hope that these by-elections will be one step further in that direction," said Ms Suu Kyi. "If I'm going to be used (to give the government legitimacy) for the sake of the nation, that's fine by me."

The democracy icon, now 66, also defended President Thein Sein on a few occasions, saying she trusted him and that her National League for Democracy party was able to take part in the by-elections only because he had spearheaded the reform of electoral law. This allowed the previously deregistered party to contest.

"I am confident that (Thein Sein) generally wishes for democratic reform. (But) I'm not certain how much support there is behind him, particularly from the military," she said.

Yesterday's press conference was her first public appearance since she fell ill last weekend, during the last leg of her gruelling schedule of election rallies around the country. She admitted to feeling "a little delicate", but joked that she felt "more burdened" by questions from journalists than by the weight of expectations on her shoulders.

"Whatever is the will of the people, if it's expressed freely, we're willing to accept," she said in response to a question from The Straits Times.

Asked to rate on a scale of one to 10 how democratic Myanmar has become, she smiled and replied: "We're trying to get to one."

THE STRAITS TIMES

YouTube

https://youtu.be/wtYY6GllMNA

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[pizzahack]

I think the movie will also focus on her personal life a lot. At least judging from the trailer. Between 1988 and 1999 when he died, they only saw eachother 5 times because he wasn't granted a visa to visit her and she either couldn't visit him or when she was allowed to she wouldn't leave Burma because she was scared to be not allowed back in. I'm not quite sure what to make of that. Is that serving a higher cause, or is that just a hunger for power and acting the martyr?

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by pizzahack

I think the movie will also focus on her personal life a lot. At least judging from the trailer. Between 1988 and 1999 when he died, they only saw eachother 5 times because he wasn't granted a visa to visit her and she either couldn't visit him or when she was allowed to she wouldn't leave Burma because she was scared to be not allowed back in. I'm not quite sure what to make of that. Is that serving a higher cause, or is that just a hunger for power and acting the martyr?

I've watched the movie and it does, in fact, focus on her personal life. That's as it should be, because her public persona is well-known, but not her private struggles. Michelle Yeoh gives a good performance and her physical resemblance to Ms Aung San Suu Kyi is remarkable. Tremendous effort had also been made to re-create Ms Suu Kyi's crumbling family home — it looks exactly like the real thing.

Unfortunately, the film is weighed down by a somewhat maudlin script. There was a bit too much exposition and not enough acting, I felt. I don't mind the fact that the politics was glossed over for the most part, but the screenplay would have definitely benefited from tighter editing.

Be that as it may, the audience spontaneously applauded as the credits rolled. Such is the enormous respect that everyone here has for Ms Suu Kyi.


P.S. As for your questions about her motives, I can see where you're coming from, but I'd say only this: Watch the interview I'd linked above and judge for yourself. It's very, very difficult to doubt her sincerity, I find. In her own words, Ms Suu Kyi said she has never seen the past 20 years as a "sacrifice". It was a choice. In biographies, it's been noted that she felt driven to live up to her father's example. In her own way, she is setting an example for her people. That's something she alluded to in the interview as well.

P.P.S: Until that interview, I've never heard Ms Suu Kyi speak. Now that I have, I respect her even more. Her sense of moral conviction is palpable and nothing short of inspiring.

[sa547]

Here's a woman who's also a genuine patriot, having gone through everything but stood on her ground, hence she and her supporters are unlike any other in the world.

Now they're all set to earn what they fought for many years, to turn Myanmar into a newly-revived democratic state.

I raise my glass to this heartening development.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by sa547

Here's a woman who's also a genuine patriot, having gone through everything but stood on her ground, hence she and her supporters are unlike any other in the world.

Now they're all set to earn what they fought for many years, to turn Myanmar into a newly-revived democratic state.

I raise my glass to this heartening development.

The big economies in this world beg to differ. There is 1 less resource-rich country in the world with a corrupt government to exploit. *sarcastic*

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by pizzahack

...she wouldn't leave Burma because she was scared to be not allowed back in. I'm not quite sure what to make of that. Is that serving a higher cause, or is that just a hunger for power and acting the martyr?

I just found this recording of her BBC Reith Lecture, delivered in 2011, in which she directly answers your questions.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, in her own words:

“Passion translates as suffering and I would contend that in the political context, as in the religious one, it implies suffering by choice: a deliberate decision to grasp the cup that we would rather let pass. It is not a decision made lightly — we do not enjoy suffering; we are not masochists. It is because of the high value we put on the object of our passion that we are able, sometimes in spite of ourselves, to choose suffering.”

Transcript of her lecture here.

[Kyuu]

Originally Posted by sa547

Here's a woman who's also a genuine patriot, having gone through everything but stood on her ground, hence she and her supporters are unlike any other in the world..

If only there are people like this in the US... but... the country is full of cowards.

[Tom Bombadil]

Well, the Junta is just one of Myanmar's problems. Having over 100 ethnic groups for such a small country is surely a mess.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Suu Kyi backs down over parliamentary oath

Yangon (April 30, Mon): Myanmar's pro-democracy leader, Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, has said that she and her fellow opposition members of Parliament will take a parliamentary oath despite disputing the wording of it.

Ms Suu Kyi, who was elected to Parliament a month ago, said her party was willing to compromise to avoid complicating political matters. She and 42 other National League for Democracy (NLD) MPs will be sworn in to Parliament on Wednesday (May 2).

NLD MPs said last week that they would not take part in a swearing-in ceremony unless a part of the oath was changed from "safeguard the Constitution" to "respect the Constitution".

"Some people might ask, given that we didn't accept the wording of 'safeguard' in the beginning, why we accept it now," Ms Suu Kyi said today. "The reason we accept it, firstly, is the desire of the people. Our voters voted for us because they want to see us in Parliament."

She added: "We are not giving up. We are just yielding to the aspirations of the people."

BBC NEWS

[TinyRedLeaf]

Suu Kyi to deliver Nobel Peace Prize speech, 21 years on

Oslo (June 16, Sat): Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is set to deliver her speech for the Nobel Peace Prize she won two decades ago, on a Norway trip hailed as a sign of the success of her struggle.

Ms Suu Kyi's visit to Oslo after years of house arrest is itself testimony to the past year's sweeping political change in her Southeast Asian homeland, where the long-ruling generals have promised to follow a path to democracy.

When she won the honour in 1991, Ms Suu Kyi could not accept it in person, fearing she would be blocked from returning to the country also called Burma where "The Lady" had become a potent symbol of non-violent defiance.

This week, back in Europe for the first time in 24 years, she is being celebrated by Western supporters and Burmese exiles on a whirlwind tour that started in Switzerland and will also take her to Britain, Ireland and France.

Ms Suu Kyi — who turns 67 next week and who fell ill in Switzerland, blaming the strain of jet lag and exhaustion — said yesterday (June 15) that she was on a journey of "rediscovery and discovery, seeing the world with new eyes".

Her trip has been clouded by ethnic strife at home, where regional clashes between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya have claimed dozens of lives and displaced more than 30,000 people.

To her many admirers, the Oxford-educated daughter of independence hero General Aung San is one of history's great human rights defenders.

"It is not power that corrupts but fear," she said in her most famous speech, in 1990. "Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it, and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it."

AFP

[TinyRedLeaf]

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi is currently in Singapore on her first visit to the city-state, and I will be covering her news conference with the mass media on Monday (9.15am GMT, Sept 23, 2013). If you have questions you'd like me to ask her, feel free to send them to me via private messaging.

Constitutional changes key to improving Myanmar's economy, says Suu Kyi

Singapore (Sept 21, Sat): Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said her country's government is committed to improving its economy.

But she stressed that a key part of that will be changes to the Constitution and improving the rule of law to boost inclusiveness and unity in the country.

She said that only by establishing unity among its citizens, can Myanmar achieve genuine success for reforms.

"A lot of our problems in recent months have arisen from the fact that we have been lacking in transparency. Business deals that have turned sour, the demands of the people for their wrongs to be put right so transparency is very important.

"But transparency is linked to confidence. We need a leadership that has enough confidence in themselves to be transparent and enough honesty to accept criticisms and to meet it in the best way possible, which is to say by redressing what needs to be redressed, but by standing up for what they believe is worth preserving or worth pursuing."

She was speaking to some 350 government officials and business leaders at the Singapore Summit conference held at Shangri-La Hotel.

CHANNEL NEWS ASIA