The Lanka Guardian is pleased to publish a topical feature on Burma which was written by Victor Karunairajan four years ago. We came across it in our search for certain material on this country now in a state of intense political boil. “There comes a moment anything on the boil can spill over with terrible consequences and this is what is happening to Burma otherwise called Myanmar today. 
The country’s military junta from the day they sealed the voice of the great non-violent campaigner, Aung San Suu Kyi who was overwhelmingly elected to lead the country, it consigned the people of Burma to incredible indignities,” commented Karunairajan when we referred this feature to him. He added: “Countries that trample human rights do so at great peril to themselves. This applies to Sri Lanka too still unwilling to recognize Tamils on par with the majority Sinhalese in respect of their rights as Sri Lankan citizens.”Sometimes it is better to have the people of the world on your side than the governments of the world – Aung San Suu Kyi
Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi is worthy of being hailed as Sue Chee Gandhiji. A star of new hope for the world on the Burmese firmament, Suu Kyi was elected leader of her people with her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) winning 82% of the seats in the Burmese Parliament at the 1990 General Elections.
But the ruling Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP), alias the Military Junta, one of the world’s most brutal military contraptions according to human rights activists, clung on to power, threw Madam Suu Kyi into house detention and jailed hundreds of NLD supporters most of them students. The iron-clad military regime clamped down on the political freedoms of the people of Burma, a country officially recognized as Myanmar, and subjected them to a life of constant despair and injustice.
UNWAVERING COMMITMENT
Basic civil liberties were denied to the populace and it was unthinkable for anyone to raise any voice against the military regime. Despite her fragile physique and the ever-present risks to her life, Suu Kyi’s unwavering commitment and resolve to achieve democracy for Burma through non-violent means has not only given a glimmer of hope for her people but also attracted worldwide attention to her unrelenting leadership.
Winner of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and the Nobel Prize for Peace the following year, Suu Kyi in a speech smuggled out of Burma in 1997 called on the world thus: “The cause of liberty and justice finds sympathetic responses in far reaches of the globe. Thinking and feeling people everywhere, regardless of colour or creed, understand the deeply rooted human need for meaningful existence. Those fortunate enough to live in societies where they are entitled to full political rights can reach out to help the less fortunate ones in other parts of our troubled planet.
Young women and young men setting forth to leave their mark on the world might wish to cast their eyes beyond their own frontiers to the Shadowlands of lost rights. Please use your liberty to promote ours.”
A daughter of Burma’s first post-independent leader General Aung San, Suu Kyi lived in India for a while when her mother was her country’s ambassador in Delhi and proceeded to Oxford University to earn her degree in economics, philosophy and politics. She worked at the UN Secretariat for sometime before taking to active politics.
DETENTION IN RANGOON
A mother of two she lost her husband while held in detention in Rangoon where she went to visit her mother who was failing in health.
It was during this time there were countless demonstrations against the military junta many of which were put down with brutal force. This prompted Sue Kyi and many advocates of democracy to form the National League for Democracy in September 1988 of which she became its General Secretary.
The next two years witnessed tyranny of the worst kind with the government using its State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) to counter the rapidly growing demand for a free nation. Unable to contain her passion to achieve a democratic Burma, the SLORC placed Suu Kyi under house arrest and all rights and freedoms as a citizen curtailed.
However, the Military Junta did not have the courage to charge her with any crime when she went on hunger strikes adopting the Gandhian principles based on non-violence and even gave shelter to students who supported her ideas of democracy.
It was virtually a battle of diligent moves, wits and courage on one side and threats and intimidation on the other side during which hundreds of people were imprisoned or put to death and several just disappeared from the face of the earth.
MEANING OF BEING HUMAN
In an age when materialism crushes spiritualism, greed devastates volunteerism and the search for happiness is hooked on the “I” factor, Suu Kyi has demonstrated the true meaning of being human and this concept having a lasting impact on the world. Her dedication to achieving basic human rights despite losing her own, demonstrates the importance of standing firmly for what is true and just.
The military conglomerate may hold the people of Burma to ransom by holding on to power with ruthless force but to people all over the world, especially the oppressed and the vulnerable Suu Kyi is an oasis of great hope. The dangers she faces to help Burmese to become a free people illustrates her willingness to sacrifice her own life to achieve freedom and happiness for her people.
Her unwavering stand transcends all man-made formidable boundaries such as gender, age, race, religion and ethnicity. Aung San Suu Kyi embodies what it is to be human and illustrates beyond all doubt the importance of uniting humanity and has thus become a role model in leadership.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu in referring to Burma as the “New South Africa” has indirectly acclaimed Suu Kyi as the new Nelson Mandela or better still, Myanmar’s Sue Chee Gandhiji.
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