Aung San Suu Kyi
The citizens of Burma elected Aung San Suu Kyi to lead their country in 1988. But she was never allowed to take office. Instead that election led to her imprisonment. The Burmese military has kept her under lock and key ever since. She has tasted freedom for only a handful of days in the past 19 years. The Burmese generals obviously believe that democracy threatens the posh lifestyle which they have learned to enjoy.
Aung San Suu Kyi is the Mahatma Ghandi of our time. Like Ghandi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, she advocates peaceful resistance to the illegitimate military rulers of Burma. She could ask her followers to take up arms, and many of them probably would. However this would allow the Burmese generals to use the pro-democracy movement in their propaganda campaign. The Burmese military leaders would love to say that they are in the midst of repelling an armed insurrection. Instead the world has watched as they gun down unarmed civilians and beat up Buddhist monks. This has made them the target of international scorn.
Aung San Suu Kyi has made many sacrifices on behalf of the Burmese people. She left her husband and children behind in 1988 and has not seen them since. Her husband was not allowed to visit her in prison before his death in 1999. And there’s no reason to believe that she has been treated with respect during her current confinement.
I have been writing regularly about the plight of the Burmese people because I consider their pro-democracy movement much more significant than the petty back and forth sniping of comfortable American politicians. People are dying today for the sake of democracy in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi and her followers deserve our support.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma, Myanmar, democracy
October 9th, 2007 at 2:14 am
[…] for peace, personal sacrifice and spiritual enlightenment. Lately they have chosen to stand with Aung San Suu Kyi and the pro-democracy demonstrators in their home country. But the leaders of other religions will […]